The EU as an External Democracy Promoter

Abstract

As one aspect of its external relations the EU exports its values and its own view of legitimate democratic governance to third countries and acts there as an external promoter of democracy. In doing so, the EU utilizes various instruments. The panel will focus on the process of choosing these instruments: Why does the EU choose different instruments in different countries? What are the explanatory variables for this choice? Three factors are assumed to be relevant: the EU's potential to act, the structure of resonance in third countries and the relation (historical, cultural, economical, political) between the EU and the third country. As a contextual variable the international environment is conceptionalized as changes in the international system and/or competition with other states or international organizations. We aim at an explanation of the use of different instruments in various countries by the EU. Insight should be drawn from the comparison of the use of instruments in different sets of countries, such as the ACP-countries, the Mediterranean, the new neighbours in East and Central Europe (incl. former Soviet Union).

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