A Thorny Path to the Spotlight The Rule of Law Component in EU External Policies and EU- Ukraine Relations Olga Burlyuk * Abstract The rule of law and its promotion abroad is currently at the core of EU external policies, specifically in the European neighbourhood. But has it always been the case? This article traces the rule of law component of EU external policies in gen‐ eral and EU–Ukraine relations as a case study, and reveals that in the last two dec‐ ades the rule of law has followed a thorny path to the spotlight, emerging from a rather peripheral place in the 1990s to its currently central one. The article argues that this is a result of three processes: the legislative mainstreaming of the rule of law in the EU itself, the growing ambitiousness of EU–Ukraine relations, and the increased visibility of systemic shortcomings in rule of law application in Ukraine due to the trials of opposition politicians since 2010. The article concludes by sug‐ gesting that rule of law components of other EU bilateral relations in the European neighbourhood and beyond are subject to similar processes. Keywords: rule of law, rule of law promotion, European Union, European Neigh‐ bourhood Policy, Ukraine. A. Introduction The rule of law and its promotion abroad is currently at the core of EU external policies, specifically in the European neighbourhood. Such centrality of the rule of law to EU engagement in third states seems usual today. But has it always been the case? To analyse the relevance of the rule of law for EU cooperation with third states and the reasons behind its potential change, this article traces the rule of law component of EU external policies in general and EU–Ukraine relations in particular. Ukraine is selected as a case study for this analysis for two main rea‐ sons. The first reason is the empirical affluence of EU–Ukraine cooperation as one of the most elaborate relationships under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which provides sufficient evidence to explore and analyse. The second rea‐ son is the presently explicit positioning of Ukraine’s compliance with the rule of law as a crucial precondition for further EU–Ukraine integration, specifically for * Recently awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations, Brussels School of International Studies, the University of Kent. European Journal of Law Reform 2014 (16) 1 133