Invited Talk by Professor Laure Delcour, University Sorbonne Nouvelle, at a Research Seminar, Co-organised by the MA Programme 'Comparative Politics of Eurasia'

Professor Delcour presented results of her research on the topic 'The EU and its “eastern neighbourhood”: multiple external influences, policy transfer and domestic change'.

On December 11, 2020, the joint Research Seminar of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, the Centre for Comparative Governance Studies and the MA Programme 'Comparative Politics of Eurasia' hosted Professor Laure Delcour (Institute for European Studies,University Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France). Professor Delcour presented results of her research on the topic 'The EU and its 'eastern neighbourhood': multiple external influences, policy transfer and domestic change'.

This research has departed from the earlier literature on the European Union influence in its Eastern neighbourhood, which had tended to focus on EU-level policies and prioritize EU-related variables. Professor Delcour has sought to overcome this EU-centric approach by connecting EU policy transfer to the domestic and regional environment in which it unfolds. She looked at the ways in which the EU attempted to influence domestic change in the post-Soviet countries participating in the European Neighbourhood Policy/Eastern Partnership and domestic receptivity to EU policies and templates. She sought to disentangle the various dynamics behind domestic change (or lack thereof) in Eastern Partnership countries, including EU policy mechanisms, domestic elites’ preferences and strategies, regional interdependences and Russia’s policies. Based upon extensive empirical investigation on EU policies in four countries (Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) Professor Delcour provided systematic and nuanced explanation of complex forces at work in the policy transfer process.