This paper proposes to draw more general conclusions on the European Union’s ability to promote democracy in its near neighbourhood on the grounds of the several empirical case studies preceding in the paper series. Furthermore, it links these to the framework providing theoretical grounding for the entire series – namely Normative Power Europe – enabling us to assess the continued relevance of the framework to the study of the European Union as a normative actor. More specifically, the paper identifies a research puzzle that might stand at the focus of further research on normative power Europe. This research puzzle relates to the existence of an inherent paradox in Europe's normative power. On the one hand, the idea of Europe as a normative power rests on the EU's democratization efforts in third countries. For the EU to sustain its normative influence, it needs to promote its fundamental norms, including democracy, abroad. On the other hand, to be able to justify its own identity it needs to reiterate this abroad as undemocratic, thereby continuously "othering" it and decreasing the likelihood of its normative transfer being successful. The construction of the EU's identity as democratic, progressive, etc. in opposition to the non-democratic and backward other clashes with the EU's external democratization efforts. We suggest that it is precisely this clash - a normative paradox - that has prevented the EU from logging meaningful policy successes in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, but also the Maghreb and other regions.
