Governance improvement by sectoral cooperation: toward a framework of policy designs for the Eastern neighbourhood

ABSTRACT This article explores the potential of the EU’s sectoral cooperation for the advancement of good governance by exploring the relationship between alternative policy designs and types of target country regime contexts in the Eastern neighbourhood. Informed by the scholarship on policy instrument choice and political settlements analysis, this research offers a framework of policy designs that match instrument mixes with specific implementation arenas. Once rigorously tested, it will be able to shed light on how the ENP’s sectoral cooperation could be attuned to elicit desirable feedback effects on governance improvement in the Eastern neighbourhood.