FRIDE Democratisation

Europe's inconsistent support for democratic reform in Ukraine

Richard Youngs — 2008-09-08T00:14:03+01:00

Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images

Ukraine provides evidence of very different CFSP negotiating dynamics. Part of a project on EU foreign policy dynamics, this paper by Richard Youngs for the UCD Dublin European Institute (DEI),
seeks to explain why European governments have backed Ukraine's Orange Revolution in an apparently united, but also relatively cautious fashion.

A combination of normative entrapment and co-operative bargaining ensured that ‘maximalist’ and ‘minimalist’ member states united around a common position in support of the Orange revolution.

In subsequent debates over whether the EU should offer Ukraine a membership prospect, however, lowest common denominator dynamics prevailed. This case additionally demonstrates that both before and after Ukraine’s democratic transition very specific external geo-strategic factors played an important role in conditioning EU policy outcomes.

Download Working Paper "Europe's inconsistent support for democratic reform in Ukraine" (Pdf)

Spain and Equatorial Guinea: a triumph of energy realism?

Edward Burke — 2008-09-08T00:14:03+01:00

Rodrigo Angue Nguema/AFP/Getty Images

In a period when international condemnation of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s regime has reached new heights, events in another African country with an appalling human rights record has embroiled Spain in accusations related to a now-infamous mercenary plot.

The ongoing trial in Equatorial Guinea of alleged coup leader and ex-SAS officer Simon Mann has become a political issue for Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero’s government, which has been forced to repeat its denial that Spain provided any backing for the failed attempt to topple President Teodoro Obiang in March 2004.

Mann’s trial is undoubtedly a poorly-orchestrated charade in one of Africa’s most corrupt and brutal states, but his repeated insistence that the government of former Prime Minister José María Aznar backed the coup attempt has thrown relations between Spain and Equatorial Guinea into sharp focus with less than flattering results for both the previous Partido Popular (PP) and the current Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) governments. In this Comment article Edward Burke explores events leading up to Simon Mann’s detention and the political row that followed.

Bahrain: reaching a Threshold

Edward Burke — 2008-09-08T00:14:03+01:00

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Bahrain’s top-down reforms, initiated by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa in 2001, were a welcome respite for a population weary of the violence and state repression that characterised much of the preceding decade. King Hamad’s relatively benign treatment of CSOs and his tolerance for a wider degree of freedom of expression has won international praise, most effusively from the United States.

The lack of legislative and judicial reform however, means that Bahrain’s political societies, CSOs, journalists and trade unions continue to operate under flawed and inconsistently applied legislation. Restrictive legislation such as the associations’ law, public gatherings law and the legislation governing trade unions and the media urgently require amendment to concretely secure the rights which Bahrain is required to observe under its international obligations, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

As the 10th year of King Hamad’s reign approaches, in this working paper, Ed Burke argues that Bahrain has reached an impasse in its reform process

Energy and Development: lessons from Nigeria

Anna Khakee — 2008-09-08T00:14:03+01:00

Nigeria, and in particular the Niger Delta, have all the components of failed development: deep poverty, corruption and neglect, disenfranchised ethnic minorities, self-serving multinational oil companies, environmental degradation, destruction of livelihoods, gang violence, civil strife, and despair.

This policy brief of Anna Khakee examines how Nigeria’s conflict over energy has affected development and how the European Union has attempted to tackle the development-energy linkage. It highlights the main elements of Nigeria’s “oil curse” and how European Union policies have been split between support for a stable, democratic and economically advancing Nigeria on the one hand, and for secure energy supplies on the other hand. Leading up to 2020 the nexus between oil, development and European security policies in Nigeria will become more difficult to manage; a gear change in EU engagement is required. See more

The new enhanced agreement between the European Union and Ukraine: Will it further democratic consolidation?

Natalia Shapovalova — 2008-09-08T00:14:03+01:00

JOHN THYS/AFP/Getty Images

In March 2007 negotiations for a New Enhanced Agreement (NEA) began between the European Union and Ukraine. The EU-Ukraine Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which was signed in 1994, expired in 2008.

The New Enhanced Agreement will be a comprehensive and cross-pillar agreement introducing a contractual basis for integration, convergence and cooperation in various fields such as political reforms, rule of law, human rights, border management, migration, the Common Foreign and Security Policy and free trade between Ukraine and the EU.

But will this new agreement be sufficient to assist Ukraine’s faltering process of democratic consolidation? Will the notion of an “enhanced” agreement serve as a new model for those states still denied a membership perspective? This paper of Natalia Shapovalova outlines the advances to be made under the NEA but argues that the answer to both these questions is likely to be negative.