Conditionality: Double Standards in EU Democracy Promotion?

This chapter focuses on the mechanism of conditionality in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), in order to assess the prospects for democratic reforms in two ENP partners, Morocco and Ukraine.Is ENP political conditionality for Morocco and Ukraine the same as for accession candidate countries or are there different standards in the EU’s democracy promotion? Moreover, are there any differences between Morocco and Ukraine as regards ENP political conditionality? If so, how is it possible to account for these differences? Do they exist because the two countries belong to different geographical areas, i.e. North Africa, which cannot be politically integrated into the EU, and Eastern Europe, which might have the prospect of political integration with the Union? Are there other explanations? The chapter is divided into three parts. First, I outline the main similarities and differences between pre-accession and ENP conditionality and their implications. In the second section, after a brief summary of the main turning points in the relationship between each case study and the EU, I analyse the specific content of the ENP political conditions in order to assess similarities and differences between the two case studies. In the concluding section, I summarise the main findings and discuss some explanations.