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The Role of Epistemic Communities in the EU’s Foreign Policy towards its Neighbouring Countries

Europe (Central and Eastern)
European Union
Foreign Policy
Christos Kourtelis
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences
Christos Kourtelis
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences

Abstract

Since the creation of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) analysts have examined a number of explanatory variables, such as the intergovernmental bargaining process, the importance of the supranational institutions and power asymmetries between participants, for understanding the policy. Yet, in addition to these factors emphasis should be placed on the role of knowledge, expertise and ideas in explaining the process of creating the blueprint for different areas of the ENP. So far, very few studies have attempted to analyse the role of non-state actors in this process and when this is done the focus is on the impact of NGOs in EU’s foreign policy. This paper tries to fill this gap by examining the role that epistemic communities have played in key areas of the ENP. In doing so, this study explains the impact of communities of shared knowledge in the area of corruption in the east side of the ENP and their role in shaping a new rural development regime in the southern rim of the policy. This research argues that classical perspectives for understanding the role of these actors need to be amended. Besides the bureaucratic power that epistemic communities hold in the decision-making process, their impact depends on their efforts to communicate recommendations as solutions to collective goods problems. However, success to introduce new policy alternatives does not merely result from the persuasive force of epistemic communities. Compliance with the new suggestions is shaped by the integration of policy recommendations to existing cognitive frameworks; the acceptance of an interplay between a number of related actors with diverse interests and the ease of enforcement.