Legislative Approximation and Application of EU Law in the Eastern Neighbourhood of the European Union ─ Towards a Common Regulatory Space?

The book explores the phenomenon of application of EU law beyond the EU borders. It focuses on two particular dimensions of this process. It considers the legal and institutional foundations of the extraterritorial application of EU law in third countries. It also analyses the results of legal approximation and regulatory convergence with regard to the EU’s eastern neighbours, the countries of the Eastern Partnership and Russia. While these countries are not working towards full EU membership, the EU’s policy towards the Eastern Partnership countries and Russia encourages these countries to voluntary harmonise their legislation with the EU’s body of law.

The first part of the volume focuses on the general challenges of regulatory convergence and application of EU law beyond the EU borders. The second part is made up of substantive country reports on legal approximation and application of EU law in the countries of the European Partnership and Russia authored by leading academics from the countries concerned. Finally the book addresses the very topical issue of legal compatibility between regional integration process in the post-Soviet space and the extraterritorial application of EU law. The conclusions reached are highly informative as to the effectiveness of present and future EU external regional policies aimed at the promotion of EU common values and EU legislation into the legal orders of third countries.

Roman Petrov is Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine.

Peter Van Elsuwege is Professor in EU law at Ghent University Law School, Belgium