The european union as a transformative power, a donor or a security provider? The view from the eastern partnership countries

Since the launch of the European Union's (EU's) Eastern Partnership initiative in 2009, it has attracted considerable scholarly attention. Yet, so far it has been largely analysed from a very EUcentred perspective, looking into how policies are developed by the EU and what are their effects in the 'target countries'. Rarely has the table been turned around, asking how the EU and its initiatives are viewed in these countries. This article intends to fill this gap by examining perceptions of the EU among think tanks, i.e. civil society actors seeking influence on foreign policy formation in Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. The study maps and evaluates discursive frames used by representatives of think tanks. Methodologically, the research employs content analysis of think tank publications, covering a period of two and a half years-between November 2013 and May 2016.