Masaryk university

4.5 Partial conclusion

Qualitative analysis of the documents demonstrates a presence of a broad normative basis in the EU approach to eastern neighbourhood. Founding Prague Declaration establishes a wide normative framework placing democracy, the rule of law, fundamental freedoms and the respect for human rights at the top of European expectations from partner states. These principal categories have been mentioned in all subsequent documents. But taking into account EU’s continual emphasis on principle of differentiation (Prague declaration, Warsaw declaration, 2010, 2011 and Vilnius declaration) distribution of those values varies in the country by country review of developments. Yet the manner in which EU mentions normative values remains vague and largely declarative and neutral. The documents do not specify areas and particular rights which are facing more obstacles on the ground. More often issues of human rights are mentioned in the context of ongoing Human Rights Dialogues, though it is not clear from the texts what kind of undertaking such dialogues put forward in discussions with partner countries. Furthermore, for the matters of democracy and freedoms the documents regularly refer to Civil Society Forums, the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities of the EaP and Parliamentary Assembly of Euronest. But again no details about issues discussed and prioritized in their meetings have been included in the texts. In the preceding chapter we mentioned dual track nature of Eastern Partnership. Our study shows that normative aspects are advocated in bilateral track through “Strengthened human rights dialogue”. Multilateral track, in addition, introduces platforms among which Platform 1 titled “Democracy, god governance and stability” contains normative elements concerning fight against corruption, reform of judiciary and of public administration.

Normative values and principles	Normative mechanisms	Normative goals
Democracy	Cooperation	Political association
Human rights	Dialogue
	Exchange of practices
Fundamental freedoms
	Non-normative mechanism: conditionality
Rule of law

Table 2. Most frequently mentioned normative categories in the abovementioned documents on the basis of qualitative analysis

As for normative mechanism, qualitative analysis helped to identify most frequently mentioned tools. We already stated dialogues while explaining promotion of human rights. Nevertheless, the EU prefers dialogue not solely for human rights but also in a number of other issues such as developing civil society, promoting youth programmes and cultural ties, dialogue is considered an appropriate mechanism. Apart from this, we can include into this category exchange of practices as well. In fact, Manners similarly interpreted this mechanism as normative by referring it to a broader normative mechanism – transference. Conditionality from our considerations in the theoretical part remains a disputable tool. However, document analysis reveals that European Union consistently employs conditionality rhetoric throughout all the documents we have reviewed. Particularly, Vilnius declaration and 2013 Implementation report insist on “more for more” principle trying to tempt government to comply with EU recommendations in reward for increased financial assistance. Attaining political association repeatedly expressed in the documents is the main normative goal we have derived from the analysis as such association requires all abovementioned normative values be accepted and implemented.

All in all, qualitative analysis of basic documents portraying EU policy towards Eastern neighbourhood, allows us to confirm that EU acts largely on normative basis, as long as this policy contains 3 primary elements of Normative Power concept – normative values, mechanisms and goals. However, we have also encountered a number of non-normative areas covered by contractual relations, particularly economic issues. To what extent such combination retains normative core in practical use and how productive it is in exerting normative impact will be a main concern in the next chapters.

Case study – EU-Azerbaijan

5.1 Introduction

Application of the case study method is preconditioned by the necessity to delineate the context and frames of our research design. As a type of qualitative research method, case study by the way of analysing certain events and relationships which are taking place in a specific context (Zaidah 2007: 2). In line with Miles and Huberman (1994: 25) definition of the case as “a phenomenon of some sort occurring in a bounded context” or in other words as a “unit of analysis”, we can formulate our case as the normative agenda in bilateral relationships between the EU and Azerbaijan, while the interaction with the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership constitute the context of the case. There are several factors that make Azerbaijan an interesting unit of the case study. The country with large reserves of oil and gas poses itself as a committed partner of the European Union and reliable energy supplier. Secondly, the region of South Caucasus, where the EU tries to avoid collision with Russia compels the EU to be highly prudent in the regional policy making. In other words, Azerbaijan poses several challenges to normative-based relationships. Therefore, the EU-Azerbaijan relations studied from the normative perspective may bring on several implications regarding the drawbacks of current approaches within the ENP/EaP and contribute to a better understanding of the logic of relationships.

Collapse of USSR marked the end of bipolar world order and long lasting Cold War. Moreover, this collapse enriched international system with emergence of 15 independent states which found themselves at the extremes of deteriorating political environment. New independent countries were involved in regional conflicts and suffered internal instability, they were strangers to democratic order and principles. However, massive protests in these countries expressed their aspirations to independence and democracy. Azerbaijan, a country in the South Caucasus, was one of those states. The country was involved into territorial conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and lost around 20% of its internationally recognized lands and more than 20.000 citizens (de Waal 2003, 285). Internal political situation was trembling – within the next 2 years since 1991, when Azerbaijan entered into international system of states, the country witnessed 3 regime changes. Political situation was characterized as anocratic due to insufficient democratic changes and yet persisting autocratic tendencies.

Many authors (Hasanov 2011, Mammadov 2013, Ahmadov 2013) in Azerbaijan consider Heydar Aliyev’s rise to power in 1993 by large public support a crucial point in country’s further development and democratization. He decided on evolutionary way of leading Azerbaijan to democracy, political pluralism and market economy and denounced revolution as an incapable tool for political transformations (Hasanov 2014, 61). Here it is necessary to mention that in the first years of independence Azerbaijan’s economy was bearing consequences of disintegration and lack of infrastructure. A number of PSA²¹ contracts for oil and gas exploration and production signed with western companies and particularly “Contract of the Century”²² were expected to raise revenues and ensure prosperity. Therefore, the government desperately needed international assistance and cooperation. In other words, the character of relations between Azerbaijan and the western countries was quite asymmetric which provided more leverage for Europe. In line with these expectations Azerbaijani government made several important steps towards democratization, including the law on freedom of assembly in 1998, freedom of information act, abolition of censorship, abolition of death penalty. Cooperation with Venice Commission was an indispensable part of this process. However, during last years of Heydar Aliyev’s presidency political situation gradually deteriorated. Heydar Aliyev’s personal popularity and attractiveness in international political circles helped him to accumulate power in the hands of the executive branch and to cement YAP’s²³ position in the political system of the country. Political regime systematically inflicted oppression on freedoms and human rights. This tendency coincided with tripled flows of profits from oil extraction and export. Hence, Azerbaijan was gaining a status of important partner in energy sector. In addition, massive investments into Azerbaijan’s economy, mainly from the western countries, strengthened self-reliance of political regime. So, the asymmetry in relations which was in favour of Europe in terms of providing more plausible leverage in 1990s, started to shift towards the centre allowing Azerbaijani leadership to downplay western reproaches and concerns.