The Genesis of the European Neighbourhood Policy: Alternative Narratives, Bureaucratic Competitions

Abstract

The present chapter provides a sociological analysis of the drafting of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). First, it examines the conditions of emergence of the initiative within the European bureaucracies in Brussels, from 2002 to 2004. Then it envisages the question of what is being done in the ENP, through an examination of who is doing it.

The present text is a revised version of a paper entitled ‘Alternative Narratives of the European Neighbourhood Policy’, given at the first Challenge Doctoral Training School ‘Perspectives on the European Neighbourhood Policy’ at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels on 21–2 April 2006. The author would like to thank all participants to the conference for useful remarks, in particular Thierry Balzacq, Didier Bigo, Sandra Lavenex, and Ruben Zaiotti.