This master’s thesis evaluates the extent of European integration in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine (Eastern neighbours). The aim is to determine whether economic integration is more advanced than legal and value-based integration and if the commonly agreed assumption that EU candidacy is the most powerful tool at the disposal of the EU to foster European integration is valid in the case of the Eastern neighbours. To do so, we analyse the Eastern neighbours through the External Incentive Model (EIM), that explained the successful European integration of Central and Eastern Europe in 2004, and systematically compare the results with these of the Western Balkans, who are themselves on the European integration path as well as (potential-)candidate to the EU. Moreover, we tackle the limit of the model and of the EU’s European integration strategy in the Eastern neighbours and the Western Balkans, by giving an account of the changing geopolitical context, mostly the role of Russia, China and Turkey, and their influence.