The project will add to the ongoing debate in the EU regarding the future approach towards the EaP region at a critical time marked by increased regional tensions and instability. EaPpeal looks particularly at various ways of improving the neighbourhood policies (i.e. ENP is currently under internal review) and at providing novel answers and raise awareness of the intrinsic and extrinsic challenges the EU faces in its eastern neighbourhood. Our expected results are relevant for students, scholars, civil society representatives and policy-makers alike at the national, regional and international level, and the structure of the project will help to ensure that all communities have access to what we have learned. The latest political events from the EU’s eastern neighbourhood placed the EaP region under huge scrutiny taking into account the latest tensions between the Euro-Atlantic community and Russia. The turmoil from Ukraine and the menace of the spill-over effect this crisis might have over the larger region represent a litmus-test for the political initiatives and cooperation frameworks the EU has envisaged in its eastern neighbourhood. EaPpeal will unpack the region’s future perspectives by trying to look into the implications of the ongoing events on the effectiveness of the EaP. It seeks to make a contribution to the current debate by trying to answer some critical questions: Could we still speak of an European ‘transformative power’ in its near abroad? Could the EU still reach out to the EaP countries? We seek to answer these questions by addressing and pooling resources from various target groups - academia, civil society and policy-making field from the EU/EaP countries and Russia. We believe our project and its envisaged activities could answer an increasing need to bring new insights into what could be done to improve the presence of the EU in the EaP region. Moreover, we aim at providing answers to the EaP region’s future perspectives from a triple angle: theoretical, empirical and policy-making. Theoretically and empirically, we seek to answer the research questions set above and, thus, develop novel methodological skills and acquire new understandings of the latest challenges the EU faces in post-Soviet Eastern Europe. This could, ultimately, help policy-makers make informed decisions about which institutional set up is likely to allow them to better achieve their goals. Another goal of EaPpeal is the establishment of a network of experts (from EU/EaP states and Russia) specialised in the study of the post-Soviet space who will jointly commit to produce expertise for young researchers, specialists, civil society representatives and decision-makers in the field and, thus, contribute to creating a new generation of young specialists in European Studies.

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