Bachelor Student Prize Winner

Eighteen students completed their bachelor's degree in 2020 with a thesis that was labelled ‘excellent’ by their faculty. Here you will find a short introduction to these excellent theses in the form of an "elevator pitch" from each student, plus a video in which the supervisor briefly addresses the lucky winner.

Jette Banning

 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences | Bachelor European Studies

"(Non)European Others? The Role of Identity in ENP: A Comparative Study of EU Discourse on Tunisia and Ukraine"

Jette's elevator pitch 
Scholars largely define Eastern and Southern ENP as interest-driven due to illegal migration and terrorism in both regions, while European values matter insignificantly: Interests and values stand in trade-off. Assuming this trade-off, it seems puzzling that the values’ role diverges in the two ENPs even though both regions bear EU security-interests. So, why is it really, that values discourse differs?

To investigate this, a social-constructivist argument on identity is made. A discourse analysis of EU documents on Tunisia and Ukraine shows how Tunisia is perceived as more distinct from European identity than Ukraine. Ukraine’s constructed ‘Europeanness’ opposed to Tunisian ‘Orientalism’ explains why the EU shares its values with Ukraine unlike Tunisia, a partner not akin to European identity.

Thereby this research highlights the importance of values and identity rather than interest-arguments which dominate literature.