Obstacles and facilitators of EU democracy promotion
Grimm, Sonja, Shyrokykh, Karina and Solander, Nea (2025).
This policy brief presents a structured analytical framework for understanding the obstacles and facilitators that shape EU democracy promotion in the European neighbourhood, examining factors across domestic, EU, and international levels through institutional, actor-based, and structural dimensions. Drawing on empirical evidence from the EMBRACE project’s research across twelve case studies in the Southern Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Western Balkans, and Middle East and North Africa, the brief identifies key barriers to democratisation—including entrenched autocratic elites wielding repressive toolkits, weak state capacity and corruption, EU bureaucratic inefficiencies and inconsistent policies driven by competing strategic interests, and geopolitical pressures from authoritarian powers like Russia and China. While acknowledging that obstacles can also serve as facilitators when conditions improve, the analysis reveals how the EU’s top-down approaches, pursuit of stability over democratic values, and credibility gaps often undermine its own promotion efforts. The brief concludes with three core policy recommendations: strengthening support for grassroots movements and diverse civil society actors beyond established organisations, ensuring greater consistency between EU rhetoric and action by prioritising democratic values over short-term economic or geopolitical interests, and clearly signalling the EU’s normative commitment to defending democracy to both allies and rivals, thereby creating and maintaining spaces for free and inclusive societies that generate broader social and economic benefits.
EMBRACE Policy Brief 08