Authors

Tamar Gamkrelidze¹;  ¹ College of Europe, Poland

Discussion

The paper scrutinizes the EU driven strategic framings on “neighbours” and “neighbourhood”. The study is in particular interested how has the EU framed ENP discursively since 2003 and what have been its underlying motivations in this regard over the course of time? The research believes that the EU has continuously employed moral-universal and utilitarian-rational frames to craft the ENP discourse in order to make it “receptible” for the partner countries in the east and south. Utilitarian-rational frames appear as the most salient category due to its repeated appearance, whereas moral-universal frames come second. Identity-related frames still appear in the ENP documents, however the content is superficial and a frequency of appearance is rather low. Content analysis reveals that the main pillars of the ENP has remained stable, whereas the narrative and framings – semantics of the pillars - have changed. The pillars have evolved as multi-layered/ interlinked concepts. But most importantly, majority of them has become increasingly securitized. The study believes that it is either perception of elevated vulnerability to external threats or gradual widening/deepening of sectoral engagement with the neighbours that transforms the pillars into multi-layered concepts. Meanwhile, identity-related frames almost completely disappear after revision of the ENP in 2011. The study believes that the EU has deliberately reduced to the minimum framings on identity.