The European Union (EU) relies heavily on normative tools to exert power in world
politics, such as the promotion of its own laws and standards. The most successful case is
the EU enlargement process, which has contributed to stabilize the vicinity and transform
candidates into market-based democracies by promoting alignment with European
legislation and offering the prospect of EU accession. The European Neighbourhood
Policy (ENP) uses the same mechanisms that have made enlargement a successful policy,
notably incentives-fueled reform. It does not however offer participating states a
membership perspective and therefore most scholarly studies have drawn bleak prospects
on its ability to promote reform. While cooperation in the ENP framework is not as
intense as during the enlargement rounds, we find that some countries have indeed been
making changes to their legislation and aligning themselves with the acquis
communautaire, while other countries have not been so successful. By comparing norm
implementation in the field of Justice and Home Affairs in the cases of Moldova and
Ukraine, we show that differences are explained by the significant impact of domestic
factors, such as contested state identities and domestic political battles over foreign
policy.