Recommendations
on EU Democracy Support
“In the EU you have half a billion people who share a common belief in democracy, in rights, in the kind of economic life we want.”
– Catherine Ashton –
NEW REPORT LAUNCH
Report launch: Reevaluating the relevance of the EU’s Democracy Support Agenda
22 November, 13:00- 14:00 CET
In the context of geopolitical turmoil and creeping democratic demise, this webinar will launch a new policy report examining the continuing relevance of the EU’s democracy support. Amidst rising authoritarianism, internal political shifts, and complex geopolitical and local crises, the EU’s commitment to supporting democracy abroad is being put to the test. Through reexamining the “coherence” and “relevance” of the EU’s commitment to supporting democracy, this event seeks to better understand the EU’s role in terms of how it contributes to fostering responsive democratic societies, and consider the report’s recommendations on how to make it more effective.
Speakers:
Dr. Nathan Vandeputte (Presenter) – Lead Researcher, University of Ghent
Dr. Aijan Sharshenova (Discussant) – Crossroads Central Asia and University of Warwick
Moderated by: Dr. Julia Leininger, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Register now: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_npPY0HqYRz6boUOkUF_7hw
During this webinar, participants will unpack how the EU’s approach to democracy support, how it is adapting to the current geopolitical climate and discuss ways the EU can strengthen its response.
This paper was authored Nathan Vandeputte, Fabienne Bossuyt, Danilo Di Mauro, Christine Hackenesch, Niels Keijzer, Julia Leininger, Evelyn Mantoiu, Stefania Panebianco, Yassin Said, Christopher Wingens
This report examines the European Union’s (EU) approach to supporting democracy as a central element of its foreign policy and questions how the EU can sustain its role as a normative power amidst shifting priorities and challenges.
While Article 21 of the EU Treaty enshrines democracy, human rights, and the rule of law as core objectives, recent developments suggest a retreat from this agenda. Domestic political shifts, critiques from the Global South, and systemic competition from China and Russia have raised doubts about the EU’s capacity and commitment to promoting democracy. For example, populist radical right parties within the EU and policy adjustments, including budget cuts, have deprioritized democracy support. This trend is reflected in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s 2024 mission letters, which omit references to democracy promotion in favor of strategic interests. Moreover, perceived double standards in the EU’s responses to global conflicts have further eroded its legitimacy as a democracy advocate.
The report calls for a recalibration of the EU’s approach to remain credible in fostering democratisation. It proposes five actions: mainstreaming democracy across foreign policy, balancing discourse to emphasize democratic ambitions, sustaining funding for civil society, fostering joint learning with diverse perspectives, and adopting a “Do No Harm” principle to mitigate unintended consequences.
Background
The 2nd major objective of M.O.R.D.O.R. is to bring change to EU policy-making in regard to democracy support, by providing EU policy-makers and democracy support practitioners with top-notch recommendations.
The EU’s capacity and willingness to meaningfully empower democratization and preserve democratic achievements globally is increasingly called into question. Internally, the EU finds itself challenged by a political landscape increasingly influenced by populist radical right parties, whose growing power, intent, and capability threaten decision-making in Brussels related to democracy support. Externally, the geopolitical context also prompts the EU to pursue a more explicitly interest driven foreign policy agenda, as evidenced through its discourse around principled pragmatism, strategic economy, and becoming a geopolitical commission. Furthermore, authoritarian powers become increasingly effective in exporting and promoting their views on autocracy. Contributing to such effectiveness is the observation that the EU’s foreign policy agenda is often seen as inconsistent, self-serving, and marked by double standards, leading to growing criticism and resistance from societies in the Global South.
Given such threats to the relevance of the EU as a global supporter of democracy supporter, the goal is to inform leading EU policy-makers on how the EU can meaningfully support and protect democracy in the new geopolitical reality. Beyond limiting our assessment to the effectiveness of the EU’s dedicated democracy support policies, particular attention will be given to addressing how the EU’s ambition to support and protect democracy globally can be pursued in synergy with, rather than opposed to, its strategic material interests. In addition, instead of merely extrapolating normative frameworks that are biased by Western-centric worldviews and expectations about democracy, particular attention is also given to assessing the EU’s foreign policy from the perspective of how authoritarian regimes function and their societies react, and to what extent this policy aligns with the he democratic visions as articulated by those who live it (or hope to live it).
The findings will be published in a range of policy-papers covering (among other):
- a theoretical and conceptual framework valuing “relevance” over “effectiveness”
- analysis of EU democracy support in relation to its broader foreign policy objectives: current vectors, obstacles and opportunities
- analysis of the responsiveness of the EU’s foreign policy agenda towards democratic openings and closures
- empirical examples of the EU’s interventions in Lebanon, Uganda and Bolivia
- recommendations on how to merge its foreign policy objectives with the normative requirement to support democracy
The target audiences are:
- EU Policy-makers
- EU foreign policy analysts
Goals
– Connect area experts with dictatorship scholars and EU foreign policy analysts to contrast theory-driven insights with regional expertise to create new recommendations for EU policy-makers.
– Inform leading EU policy-makers on the current effectiveness of the EU multi-vector democracy-promoting policies from the perspective of how dictatorships function and react instead of extrapolating normative frameworks that are biased by democratic or Western-centric worldviews and expectations.
EU Policy Paper Team
Team Leaders
Fabienne
Bossuyt
Universiteit Gent
Fabienne Bossuyt is Associate Professor at and co-coordinator of the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies (GIES) at the Department of Political Science at Ghent University. She is a senior lecturer in the MA programme in EU Studies and the MA Programme in Global Studies. In addition, she is co-director of the Russia Platform of Ghent University. She is also a Professorial Fellow at UNU-CRIS, and is active as an affiliated researcher of EUCAM. Her main area of expertise is the EU’s relations with Central Asia. Her most recent research projects focus on various aspects of the EU’s relations with and policies towards Central Asia and other post-Soviet countries, including development policy and human rights promotion.
Nathan Vandeputte
UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Nathan Vandeputte is a PhD Researcher and teaching assistant at the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies. His research concerns EU democracy support in Uganda, whereby he approaches ‘democracy’ from a decentered, radical democratic theoretical perspective. Specifically, he engages with the question: how to conceptualize ‘the political’ when rejuvenating EU democracy support? Prior to starting his PhD, Nathan obtained his Master degree in EU studies at Ghent University in 2016 (summa cum laude).
Consortium Experts
These experts are involved in reviewing current EU democracy support strategies, the existing literature and relevant recommendations and then build upon them, also using input from dictatorship experts and Area Study Experts. These specialists (both scholars and policy-analysts) will be tasked with creating content for the concept paper, and later update it with above mentioned input, creating the final version of the EU Policy Paper.
This group will also contribute blog posts, info-graphics, shorter reports, etc.) They will share their practical experience as teachers during master class of policy-analysis and EU policy.
