Diversity of the EU`s interregional relations

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Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University

DIVERSITY OF THE EU'S INTERREGIONAL RELATIONS

Moroz Uliana 1^st Year of Master degree,

International Relations Department

Since the 1990s, the European Union has declared its support for regional integration in other parts of the world, and incorporated this objective as a part of European external policy. The European Union is using these relations to project its own model of institutionalised actorness. The success of European regionalism has in some cases prompted other countries to imitation, while elsewhere countries have opted for their own form of regionalism firmly rejecting any explicit attempt to replicate the European experience.

Interregionalism has been defined as «institutionalized relations between world regions». Interregional relations differ from conventional interstate relations in two aspects. First, not just states but also regional organizations and civil society generally participate in the process. Furthermore, as interregional relations are usually asymmetric -- since they tend to involve regions with different degrees of complexity such as the EU vis-a-vis most developing regional groupings -- explicit support for further integration and the transfer of integration technologies tend to be a key part of the agreements. Second, the scope of interregionalism is usually limited to «low politics»: regional organizations typically engage in negotiations on economic or social issues rather than security or military matters.

Interregionalism is a way to promote the diffusion of the EU's institutional model, its socio-economic development, democracy and good governance through dialogue and mutual cooperation. This concept laid a foundation for its foreign strategy, based on a range of policy instruments, a mix of conditionalities and incentives, generally tailored to the economic, security and geopolitical interests of the EU. Three broad approaches to the promotion of regional integration can be distinguished. First, the promotion of regional integration through enlargement has provided a very direct and comprehensive way of implementing this policy. That approach was applied towards the Central and Eastern European countries and the Western Balkans. Second, the EU can and has been able to influence regional integration in a broad and general way through normative suasion, where other regional communities adopt certain practices, institutional arrangements, or other forms of governance modelled on the European regional governance system. This approach can be traced in EU-Mercosur and EU-ASEAN interregional relations. Third, the promotion of regional integration has developed through the interregional agreements between the EU and other regional groupings, such as the Cotonou Agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific group. Generally, the interregional agreements cover a whole range of issues, such as trade, environment, technical assistance, development, infrastructure, political reform. This approach can also be implemented in EUROMED interregional relations.

In sum, the external promotion of regional integration can be used for various goals: to export the EU model of governance; to exercise international influence through the spread of EU values; and to strengthen the identity of the EU without compromising the national interests of the respective member states.

The EU interregionalism includes a gradual and mutual liberalisation of trade (interregional free trade areas). It also has promoted common policies and institutions as well as the creation of supranational frameworks. For the EU, interregionalism has been considered as a mean to export its regional governance model and to increase its reputation and legitimacy as an international actor.

However, in these last years the relationship between the EU and other regions has stagnated and the enthusiasm for the interregional relations has decreased for the benefit of bilateral relations. Given the ASEAN's emphasis on sovereignty and non-intervention, strong notions of national sovereignty and postcolonial independence in Mercosur member-states, and political instability in Mediterranean region, EU has been shifting its focus on strengthening bilateral relations region-wide. regional integration interregional relations

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