European Integration Without EU Membership: Models, Experiences, Perspectives

Open Access

Abstract

Foreword The Max Weber post-doctoral Programme is a unique programme. In 2007– 2008, there were forty Fellows on the Programme, covering a wide range of research interests within the Social Sciences and Humanities, and representing twenty-three nationalities. Among the different activities of the academic year, the conference on "European integration without membership: models, experiences, perspectives" is a good example of Fellows' initiative and their concern for relevant issues. Encouraged by Professor Marise Cremona of the Law Department of the EUI, three Max Weber Fellows, Francesco Maiani, Roman Petrov and Ekaterina Mouliarova, took the initiative to organize the conference, invite the participants, actively participate in its development and, finally, act as editors of the proceedings which follow. The Max Weber Programme, in collaboration with the Law Department, fully supported their initiative, but the credit is theirs and that of the participants who contributed to the conference. Since its foundation more than thirty years ago, "European Integration" has been a recurrent theme in the research agenda of the European University Institute – specially within the Law Department. The conference built on this long tradition, but also took from the new perspectives that young postdoctoral Fellows, with different national experiences, can bring to the discussion, a discussion that brings forward new issues, when the EU27 must reassess its relationships with neighbouring countries that form part of the broader European area without aiming at becoming EU members in the years to come. A fruitful discussion on this relevant issue needs academic reflection, as well as practical legal and political experience, it needs understanding of the EU perspective, as well as that of neighbouring countries. It is again to the credit of the organizers that in the panels of the conference all these perspectives were present in open discussion. The proceedings that follow bring together the papers presented in this conference that took place at our beloved Villa La Fonte on May 23-24, 2008. Ramon Marimon Director of the Max Weber Programme ; At the beginning of the 1990s, the concept of "European integration" could still be said to be fairly unambiguous. Nowadays, it has become plural and complex almost to the point of unintelligibility. This is due, of course, to the internal differentiation of EU membership, with several Member States pulling out of key integrative projects such as establishing an area without frontiers, the "Schengen" area, and a common currency. But this is also due to the differentiated extension of key integrative projects to European non-EU countries – Schengen is again a case in point. Such processes of "integration without membership", the focus of the present publication, are acquiring an ever-growing topicality both in the political arena and in academia. International relations between the EU and its neighbouring countries are crucial for both, and their development through new agreements features prominently on the continent's political agenda. Over and above this aspect, the dissemination of EU values and standards beyond the Union's borders raises a whole host of theoretical and methodological questions, unsettling in some cases traditional conceptions of the autonomy and separation of national legal orders. This publication brings together the papers presented at the Integration without EU Membership workshop held in May 2008 at the EUI (Max Weber Programme and Department of Law). It aims to compare different models and experiences of integration between the EU, on the one hand, and those European countries that do not currently have an accession perspective on the other hand. In delimiting the geographical scope of the inquiry, so as to scale it down to manageable proportions, the guiding principles have been to include both the "Eastern" and "Western" neighbours of the EU, and to examine both structured frameworks of cooperation, such as the European Neighbourhood Policy and the European Economic Area, and bilateral relations developing on a more ad hoc basis. These principles are reflected in the arrangement of the papers, which consider in turn the positions of Ukraine, Russia, Norway, and Switzerland in European integration – current standing, perspectives for evolution, consequences in terms of the EU-ization of their respective legal orders1. These subjects are examined from several perspectives. We had the privilege of receiving contributions from leading practitioners and scholars from the countries concerned, from EU highranking officials, from prominent specialists in EU external relations law, and from young and talented researchers. We wish to thank them all here for their invaluable insights. We are moreover deeply indebted to Marise Cremona (EUI, Law Department, EUI) for her inspiring advice and encouragement, as well as to Ramon Marimon, Karin Tilmans, Lotte Holm, Alyson Price and Susan Garvin (Max Weber Programme, EUI) for their unflinching support throughout this project. A word is perhaps needed on the propriety and usefulness of the research concept embodied in this publication. Does it make sense to compare the integration models and experiences of countries as different as Norway, Russia, Switzerland, and Ukraine? Needless to say, this list of four evokes a staggering diversity of political, social, cultural, and economic conditions, and at least as great a diversity of approaches to European integration. Still, we would argue that such diversity only makes comparisons more meaningful. Indeed, while the particularities and idiosyncratic elements of each "model" of integration are fully displayed in the present volume, common themes and preoccupations run through the pages of every contribution: the difficulty in conceptualizing the finalité and essence of integration, which is evident in the EU today but which is greatly amplified for non-EU countries; the asymmetries and tradeoffs between integration and autonomy that are inherent in any attempt to participate in European integration from outside; the alteration of deeply seated legal concepts, and concepts about the law, that are already observable in the most integrated of the non-EU countries concerned. These issues are not transient or coincidental: they are inextricably bound up with the integration of non-EU countries in the EU project. By publishing this collection, we make no claim to have dealt with them in an exhaustive, still less in a definitive manner. Our ambition is more modest: to highlight the relevance of these themes, to place them more firmly on the scientific agenda, and to provide a stimulating basis for future research and reflection. ; Foreword Ramon Marimon 1 Introduction Francesco Maiani, Roman Petrov and Ekaterina Mouliarova 3 I. The European Neighbourhood Policy and Ukraine's European Ambitions Marise Cremona: The European Neighbourhood Policy as a Framework for Modernization 5 Bart Van Vooren: The Hybrid Legal Nature of the European Neighbourhood Policy 17 Viktor Muraviov: The Impact of the EU Acquis and Values on the Internal Legal Order of Ukraine 29 Roman Petrov: The New EU-Ukraine Enhanced Agreement versus the EUUkraine Partnership and Cooperation Agreement: Transitional Path or Final Destination? 39 II. The EU-Russia "Strategic Partnership" Olga Potemkina and Nikolay Kaveshnikov: EU and Russia in Search of Strategic Partnership 47 Aaron Matta : Updating the EU-Russia Legal Approximation Process: Problems and Dilemmas 59 Paul Kalinichencko: Problems and Perspectives on Modernizing the Legal Background to the EU-Russia Strategic Partnership 71 III. The EEA Model and Norway's Legal Traditions Karin Bruzelius: The Impact of EU Values on Third Countries' National Legal Orders: EU Law as a Point of Reference in the Norwegian Legal System 81 Tor-Inge Harbo: The EEA and Norway: A Case of Constitutional Pluralism 91 IV. The Swiss "Bilateral Way" to Integration Andrés Delgado Casteleiro: Relations Between the European Union and Switzerland: a Laboratory for EU External Relations? 103 Francesco Maiani: Legal Europeanization as Legal Transformation: Some Insights from Swiss "Outer Europe" 111 René Schwok: Towards a Framework Agreement in the Context of New Bilateral Agreements between Switzerland and the European Union 125 Concluding Remarks 137 Marc Franco Contributors 139