Interests and preferences and their constitutive role in the EaP: regional, national and local actors vis-à-vis the ENP’s goals and objectives

Abstrakt: From its onset, the ENP was marred by a diversity of irreconcilable interests and preferences of actors (regional, national and local) directly and indirectly involved in that policy-strategy. That variability of interests and preferences has become particularly apparent in the Eastern Partnership (EaP), a fundamental component of the ENP. The objective of this paper is to examine the complex web of interests and preferences that have shaped the EaP over the past years. To this end the ENP’s objectives are outlined and its complexity highlighted. In what follows the interests and preferences of the plethora of actors involved in the ENP are discussed. It is stressed that the EU’s primary objective associated with the ENP, including the EaP, has been to establish peaceful and cooperative relations with its neighbours. However, as following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia has always aimed at restoring its sphere of influence, the ENP’s efficiency remains a function of interests and preferences shaping the region.