Abstract

This chapter looks into two formats of the EU’s parliamentary cooperation with third countries – the EU–Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee and the EU–Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee. These two committees were originally intended to serve as forums of Europeanization of the political elite in EU’s two neighbouring countries The chapter’s main argument is that neither the EU–Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee nor the EU–Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee has fulfilled the role for which they had been established, i.e. they have not contributed to the socialization of political class in an associate country (Ukraine) and a candidate state (Turkey). Adopting a comparative approach, the study seeks to identify the factors that constrain the effectiveness of the EU’s parliamentary cooperation.