Approaching the 'third half' of EU grand bargaining - the post-negotiation phase of the 'Europe Agreement game'

Abstract

This article focuses on the post-negotiation phase of 'grand bargaining' within the European Union (EU). Notwithstanding the fact that scholars who focus on day-to-day bargaining have gone to great lengths to conceptualize the post-negotiation phase, scholars dealing with 'grand bargains' have not so far engaged in theoretical analysis of this phase. Using the EU's international negotiation activities as its starting point, this article makes an attempt to redress this imbalance. On the basis of a developed model, an analysis of the post-negotiation phase of the EU's Europe Agreements with Central Europe is undertaken. The article concludes that the post-negotiation phase is important not only in the sense that it can alter the original negotiation outcome, but also because it can transform itself into pre-negotiation for yet another negotiation.