Abstract

• In the agenda of Myanmar’s domestic politics, military has been directly or indirectly involved in control of the state’s power. Myanmar elicited the imposition of sanctions by the EU along with other Western actors due to the military government negation on the results of 1990 election which was won by National Leagues of Democracy (NLD). Since the inauguration of President Thein Sein in March 2011, Myanmar opened up to the outside world by liberalizing economically with the relaxation of many authoritarian controls and also announced overall reform strategies. These reforms enabled Myanmar to mend its deteriorated relations with the West, particularly EU and the US. It was against this backdrop that EU lifted its sanctions on Myanmar in 2012 and finally suspended them (with the exception of the arm embargo) on 22 April 2013 by guiding Comprehensive Framework. Nation-wide free and fair elections in November 2015 embarked again an important milestone in the transitional process of Myanmar and landslide victory for the NLD, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In this context, EU consistently shows her cooperative approach to Myanmar’s new civilian administration. Based on this background, this study will analyze the manifestation of the EU's roles under specific policy actions on Myanmar. It is also interesting to find out what are the driving forces and motivations of the EU’s policy shift on Myanmar.