Privātie aģenti eiropeizācijas procesā

Europeanization process has traditionally been understood and widely studied from the point of view of interaction between the European Union and the nation states, their institutions or population. At the same time, rather under-researched is aspect about non-governmental, private actors and their transnational impact on the process. International or national political and economic actors can be seen as agents only in case they are active promoters of specific values. Therefore, the aim of this article is to conceptualize or evaluate the private agency aspect and its options in the Europeanisation process. Three central questions had to be answered about the private agents’:

1.place in Europeanisation definitions and its vectors;
2.capacities to project conditionality within the Europeanization process;
3.Europeanization mechanisms, strategies and steps available to them. The article focuses on Europeanisation as a concept and engages in a theoretical discussion to identify and distinguish agents of the process.

The article theoretically separates and analyses private agents as promoters of Europeanization. In result it allows expanding the research and conceptual approach to the phenomenon of Europeanization.

Private economic Europeanization agents due to their resources can be a powerful enabler of Europeanization. While they cannot guarantee what is available only to public actors – membership of the European Union itself or significant public investment after membership, private economic actors can provide foreign direct investment, which in itself can become a decisive argument in countries where the need for influx of capital is high. Therefore, the credibility of promises and competitiveness of rewards for adjustment are central to the ability of private Europeanization agents to project conditionality in Europeanization target countries.