Report on policy recommendations

SHARPEDEM-EU publication 50

SHAPEDEM-EU sets out to rethink, reshape, and review the European Union’s (EU) democracy support policies in its Eastern and Southern neighbourhoods. However, shifting geopolitical dynamics have significantly altered the environment in which the EU operates. While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reinvigorated certain countries’ enlargement perspectives and provided additional opportunities for the use of political conditionality in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, conflicts in the Southern Mediterranean weakened the EU’s credibility and legitimacy vis-à-vis local actors. These developments call for renewed approaches and engagements with both neighbourhoods. SHAPEDEM-EU’s Work Package 7 (Academic Synthesis and Policy Recommendations) translates academic results into actionable and concrete policy recommendations to guide and shape this renewed approach.

SHAPEDEM-EU partners conducted extensive consultations with local actors through a number of mechanisms, including expert interviews, focus groups and citizen juries. These reflect the project’s ambition to amplify local voices and embed local expertise in all findings. These activities highlighted current gaps and flaws of EU democracy support policies: EU engagement is described as highly bureaucratic, top-down and geared towards more established international civil society organizations. Additionally, local actors perceive biases in the EU’s action and note double standards across the two neighbourhoods.

To address these shortcomings, SHAPEDEM-EU developed policy recommendations anchored in the concept of the Democracy Learning Loop, an innovative framework for discussion that promotes continuous learning for all actors involved. The seven core recommendations outlined in this report aim to provide the foundation for more sustainable and effective EU democracy policies in its Eastern and Southern neighbourhoods.