With special emphasis on Poland and its relations with Ukraine, this paper argues that as enlargement has shortened the list of countries to which the EU has made membership commitments, the normative entrapment and rhetorical mechanisms that facilitated the EU’s dealings with accession countries will not be at work in its relations with other neighbours, nor address the more fractious nature of EU decision-making brought on by a larger and more diverse membership. This results in strategic behaviour by EU members, coupled with more complicated decision-making, which can be expected, in general, to complicate the EU’s external relations. However, the new membership brings trade and historical ties to eastern non-EU members in particular, as well as a more acute interest in closer relations with these eastern neighbours. Crucially, as these new members vote, consult, collaborate, and build coalitions in favour of closer ties to these countries, complications from enlargement should be far less pronounced in the EU’s eastern policy than with other ENP countries. Finally, while newer members have tended to be far less influential than more established ones in external relations, a number of the limiting factors cited in the literature, such as weak administrative capacity, may well be transitory, rather than permanent. All of this means that one can expect to see an eastward shift in the focus of the EU's external relations, and a deepening of the EU's differentiated approach in its external relations.
