Accommodation beyond Self-Interest: Identity, Policy Paradigms, and the Limits of a Rationalist Approach to EU Policy towards Central Europe

To understand why EU policy accommodates the preferences of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CCEEs) to a greater extent than an account based purely on selfish material interests on the part of the EU would predict, we need to take ideational factors into account. The EU’s discursively constructed collective identity toward the CCEEs inclines policy makers acting on behalf of the EU toward accommodating the CCEEs’ preferences. However, since the EU’s policy toward the CEECs is a composite one, a crucial mediating factor consists of the policy paradigms that underpin EU policy in the various sub-areas covered by its policy toward the CCEEs.