The Effects of Conditionality and Socialization on the Formation and Transformation of European Integration Coordination Structures in EU's Eastern Neighbors in the Process of Europeanization

The role of socialization and conditionality instruments in the process of Europeanization and EU’s use of these instruments in its enlargement policy towards Eastern neighbors have been widely discussed in the European integration literature. However, few studies have dealt with the differentiated impact of these two instruments on the internal European integration coordination structures in Eastern Neighbors. The proposed paper aims at evaluating the impact of the use of socialization and/or conditionality-based instruments by the EU towards its Eastern neighbors on the formation and transformation of European integration coordination structures. The paper observes European integration coordination structures of CEEC countries in a comparative case study to examine how EU’s use of conditionality and socialization instruments generates different responses with regards to formation and transformation of European integration coordination structures. We argue that conditionality stimulates formation and transformation of coordinating structures in Eastern neighbors, while socialization based instruments do not prompt such response.