Abstract

Political decisions, particularly those regarding complex institutionalised policy frameworks with a perspective of several years, tend to be taken at critical junctures (Capoccia and Kelemen 2007). The 2015 European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) review has been the fourth such critical juncture in the life of the European Union’s (EU’s) Neighbourhood Policy since its launch in 2003, the creation of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the Eastern Partnership (EaP) in 2008–2009 and the ENP review conducted just before the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2010 and early 2011. Each occasion has seen the EU institutions, EU Member State governments and neighbouring countries engage in a process of reflection, proposal, counter proposal and negotiation before deciding on the ENP’s future.