The EU’s democracy support pendulum: democracy promotion, democracy protection, and geostrategic pragmatism in the EU neighbourhood

Abstract

In recent years, the European Union (EU) has faced mounting challenges in promoting and safeguarding democracy in its neighbourhood, as autocratisation trends, entangled with intensifying geopolitical competition, have progressively reshaped the conditions under which EU democracy-support instruments operate. This article examines how the EU has responded to autocratisation in enlargement countries and states covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), mapping the key actors involved and the instruments they deploy, including diplomatic engagement, political conditionality, sanctions, and support for civil society. Rather than treating these instruments as fixed tools, the article argues that what has changed over time is the dominant logic according to which they are deployed. Tracing this evolution through successive phases of recalibration, it shows how EU democracy support has moved from a promotion logic premised on transformative leverage, through a protection logic concerned with containing democratic erosion, and into a geostrategic pragmatism that embeds both within a broader security-driven foreign policy. As the introduction to the special issue Dreams, deeds, and disenchantments: EU actors and instruments addressing the autocratisation challenge in the EU’s neighbourhood, the article situates individual contributions within a broader analytical framework capturing the interaction between EU action, domestic political dynamics, and geopolitical constraints.