Christiane Herzog Die Europäische Nachbarschaftspolitik – Eine Geschichte europäischer Integration

About this book

How are the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the legal concept of direct applicability and accession to the European Union interrelated?

All of these areas contain integration levers for countries neighbouring the European Union. With its legal foundations ranging from primary EU law to bilateral agreements and soft law, the ENP creates a network of regulations that enables neighbouring countries to move closer to the European Union to the extent that the geopolitical situation and the motivation and willingness to reform of the neighbouring countries allow.

With the legal concept of direct applicability created by the ECJ, rules from neighbourhood agreements can also integrate individuals from neighbouring countries into the European Union.

This paper examines the precise definition of direct effect and direct applicability and, on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of case law, identifies the criteria for the direct effect of rules from agreements between the Union and third countries. In a next step, this abstract knowledge of the legal concept of direct effect is applied to agreements with neighbouring states. The direct effect of those rules that are comparable to the fundamental freedoms and competition law of the European Union is examined. In a final step, the deepest form of integration, the European Union accession process, is examined with reference to the neighbouring countries of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.

This work thus traces the various paths of integration of neighbouring countries into the European Union.