The diffusion of the EU Asylum Acquis in the Eastern neighbourhood : a test for the EU's normative power

Abstract

By analysing the existing European Union's (EU's) channels of norm diffusion and the extent to which the EU asylum acquis has been emulated in the Eastern Neighbourhood, this article aims at testing the theory of the EU's normative power. It is argued that despite the fact that the EU acts as a normative power in the Eastern Neighbourhood, in the field of asylum, this does not always lead to having real normative power. This is caused not only by diverging agendas between the EU and the third countries concerned, but also by the inconsistent application of the principle of conditionality on the side of the EU and especially by the EU's recent trade-in of its normative power for high politics, all of which has negative consequences for people in need of international protection.