Regionalism and the EU's neighbourhood policy: The limits of the possible

In the context of its neighbourhood policy since the early 1990s, the European Union (EU) has sought to promote multilateral regional cooperation in the areas on its periphery, such as the Baltic Sea, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Despite a quite large number of EU policies and initiatives to promote such cooperation, the impact of these efforts has been limited in terms of substantive cooperation and the effect on neighbouring states. The limited impact of the EU's efforts to promote regional cooperation in its neighbourhood is explained by a number of factors: confusion over the goals of such cooperation; the contested nature of the regions under consideration; the gap between the ends sought by the EU and the means available to it; the existence of enduring geopolitical rivalries and intractable conflicts in these regions and the hub-spoke character of the relationship between the EU and its partners, which militates against regional cooperation. The promotion of multilateral cooperation in the regions of the European neighbourhood is a sensible objective of EU foreign policy, but expectations of what can be achieved should be realistic and modest.