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Is the European Union supporting democracy in its neighbourhood?
19/12/2008 By Jos Boonstra, Julia Choucair Vizoso, Ana Echagüe, Balázs Jarábik, Kristina Kausch, Richard Youngs
Despite the EU’s broad formal commitments to promote democratic norms, the feeling is widespread that in practice European governments have become less committed to promoting political change in many third countries. Overall, the EU appears to be failing to meet the challenges of a more complex international environment for democracy and human rights, having declined fundamentally to reassess its democracy support in either qualitative or quantitative terms.
This book aims to enhance understanding of the EU’s role in promoting human rights and democratic norms in the European Neighbourhood. It does so through a detailed study of the full range of different EU instruments available to support human rights improvements and democratic reform in Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Ukraine, Belarus and Azerbaijan. The book offers detailed studies of the extent to which democracy and human rights commitments made under European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) action plans and the national bilateral assistance programmes of EU member states are being implemented in practice.
It is hoped that these studies can help move debates on the ‘European model of human rights and democracy promotion’ beyond the general to country-specific operational challenges. The authors identify lessons learned and offer concrete policy recommendations on how the EU can increase the effectiveness of its efforts to promote human rights and democracy in its Neighbourhood and beyond.
Look at some of the chapters:
- Lebanon by Julia Choucair Vizoso
- Jordan by Ana Echagüe
- Azerbaijan by Jos Boonstra
- Morocco by Kristina Kausch
More on the project
Download the full version of this publication, available in English (1025 kB)
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Keywords
Democracy promotion European Neighbourhood PolicyBio author: Jos Boonstra
Central Asia. Eastern Europe. The Balkans. Caucasus. CSDP.NATO.OSCE.Security Sector Reform. Eastern Partnership.
Bio author: Julia Choucair Vizoso
Julia Choucair Vizoso is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Yale University and a nonresident associate at FRIDE.
Bio author: Ana Echagüe
Political reform in the Arab World. Yemen. Saudi Arabia. Democratisation. Gulf Cooperation Council.
Bio author: Balázs Jarábik
Belarus. Ukraine. Russia. Caucasus. Central Asia. Eurasia. Commonwealth of Independent States.Democracy promotion.
Bio author: Kristina Kausch
Democracy promotion. Maghreb. Egypt. Morocco. Tunisia. Mediterranean. Political Islam.
Bio author: Richard Youngs
Democracy promotion. EU foreign policy.
