Rethinking EU Democracy Support: Beyond the ‘democracy vs autocracy’ debate

SHAPEDEM-EU Publications 46

For the first time in over two decades, the number of autocracies in the world surpassed that of democracies (Nord et al., 2025). This global trend is acutely visible in the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods, where countries such as Belarus, Tunisia, and Georgia have undergone significant democratic backsliding, often under the influence of external actors. In addition to these challenges, the EU’s democracy support (EU DS) efforts are put to the test by two major wars – Ukraine and Gaza – both tied to the questions of sovereignty and credibility of liberal democratic norms in the face of protracted conflict. The EU’s inconsistent responses to these crises have further eroded its credibility, fuelling accusations of double standards and enabling external actors to further contest its normative influence. 

Against this backdrop, this policy paper draws on three years of research conducted within the SHAPEDEM-EU project to examine the role of non-EU external actors in the EU’s Southern and Eastern Neighbourhoods in shaping dynamics of (de)democratisation. It challenges the conventional binary between democracy supporters and autocracy promoters, revealing a more complex picture in which actors’ practices often diverge from their regime type and normative claims.