What Modernisation? The Case of Russian Partnerships for Modernisation with the European Union and its Member States

Journal of Contemporary European Studies. 2014. Vol. 22. No. 4. P. 499–517.

Романова Т. А., Pavlova E. B.

The article examines partnerships for modernisation between Russia, on the one hand, and the EU as well as 23 out of its 28 member states, on the other hand. In doing that it first identifies the difference between the Russian economic interpretation of modernisation and the EU's one based on political values. The article then demonstrates the ambiguity rather than singularity of the position that EU member states promote in their modernisation partnerships with Russia. To illustrate the difference among EU member states’ the article designs a scale of Russia’s sensitivity to various political aspects of modernization and then posits member states on this scale on the basis of their national partnerships for modernisation with Russia. As a result, a new classification of EU member states emerges; it is based on the extent, to which they are ready to defend the political definition of modernisation (and ultimately the EU's normative power) in their relations with Russia.

Ключевые слова: модернизация, демократия, права человека, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, modernisation, institutional reform, прагматизм, pragmatism, институциональная реформа, верховенство закона, EU-Russian relations, нормативная сила, EU–Russia Partnership for Modernisation, Партнерство для модернизации ЕС-Россия, Отношения России и ЕС, normative power