EU external differentiated integration in aviation and trade: what drives Southern neighbours?

This article contributes to the emergent scholarship on European Union (EU) external differentiated integration (EDI). Zooming in on aviation and trade, two of the most salient sectors of cooperation in the EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy, it examines why EDI with EU southern neighbours emerged in aviation, but not in trade despite high degrees of interdependence. Adopting an outside-in perspective to the study of EDI that treats EU southern neighbours as units of analysis, this article applies three logics revolving around economic, identity and regime security considerations. It argues that it was either individual logics or a convergence of all three logics, together with variegated domestic scope conditions, that explain why EU southern neighbours committed to rule-taking in aviation but rejected EU regulatory extension in trade.