Contested Neighbourhood, or How to Reconcile the Differences

The geopolitical and cultural boundaries that exist between the European Union (EU) and its eastern neighbourhood – Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Russia – are subject to development as the various sides seek to construct and maintain distinctions and to delineate potential grounds for their reconciliation. Analysis of the foreign policy considerations of the countries, their relations with the EU and mutual perceptions and socio-cultural values reveals that the EU reinforces the boundaries rather than accommodating them, and much less transforming them. In contrast to the EU's ‘politics of exclusion’, the eastern neighbours are more ready to negotiate ‘disturbances’ and transform the rigid boundaries erected by the EU. The grounds of reconciliation lie in two-way positive perceptions of the various polities, and more importantly in certain cultural values that pertain to the EU but are seen by the countries' citizens as being important for their own societies.