Bosse, Giselle, van den Broek, Wicke, Rennick, Sarah Anne, Saadi, Fatimah, Geha, Carmen, Vladisavljević, Nebojša, Vranić, Bojan, Žilović, Marko, Bossuyt, Fabienne, Luciani, Laura and Abdallah, Charelle (2025): Advancing Democratic Development in Authoritarian and Hybrid Regimes: The Need for Context-Aware EU Strategies
This policy brief analyses the challenges and opportunities for advancing democratic development in authoritarian and hybrid regimes within the European neighbourhood, focusing on the nuanced role of EU democracy support amid persistent regime resilience and shifting geopolitical priorities. Drawing on twelve case studies across the Southern Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Western Balkans, and the Middle East and North Africa, the report explores how entrenched elites employ both coercion and legitimising narratives to maintain power, and how EU interventions—often shaped by competing economic and strategic interests—can inadvertently reinforce authoritarian practices. Despite these constraints, the brief identifies critical openings for contestation, such as cross-class environmental mobilisations in Serbia and the institutional resilience of exiled opposition in Belarus, while also highlighting the limitations of EU strategies that prioritise high-level engagement over grassroots empowerment. The analysis culminates in a set of general and country-specific policy recommendations, urging the EU to adopt more context-sensitive, long-term approaches that balance strategic interests with democratic values, strengthen support for grassroots actors, and enhance coherence in public diplomacy to more effectively foster sustainable democratic change in the region.
EMBRACE Policy Brief 04