The Inconveniences of Putting on “Western Suits”: Europeanization at the EU’s Peripheries and the Case of Poland’s Eastern Policy

This paper presents an analysis of the interaction between EU membership and the foreign policy stances of elites in a member state from CEE. The case study concerns Polish government initiatives to shape EU Eastern policy, in particular the Eastern Partnership project. The author critically evaluates dominant explanations of the adoption of this project in terms of a “learning” process in framing the Europeanization of foreign policy, and argues that a more accurate interpretation requires taking into account core periphery relations within the EU and how they are translated into domestic struggles within the CEE region.