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Promoting Democracy through Civil Society: How to Step up the EU’s Policy towards the Eastern Neighbourhood. CEPS Working Documents No. 237, 1 February 2006

Raik, Kristi. (2006) Promoting Democracy through Civil Society: How to Step up the EU’s Policy towards the Eastern Neighbourhood. CEPS Working Documents No. 237, 1 February 2006. [Working Paper]

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    Abstract

    The European Union has successfully supported democratisation in its new Eastern member states and candidate countries. Now it needs to become more engaged in those post-communist countries where democratisation is incomplete or stalled. This study argues that civil society should be a more important priority of democracy promotion in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood and calls for a strategic and differentiated approach designed according to the stage of democratisation in the target country. The paper focuses on three countries that represent three types of cases in the eastern neighbourhood: Ukraine, which has become a ‘re-transition’ country after the Orange Revolution; Moldova, where we can observe a prolonged transition; and Belarus, an outright dictatorship. One of the well-known obstacles to enhancing the EU’s support to civil society in these countries is posed by the bureaucratic procedures of aid programmes. However, even if the rules were substantially reformed, it would still be difficult for the European Commission to work extensively with NGOs in foreign countries for political as well as institutional reasons. Hence, the EU should create new mechanisms of democracy assistance. The German and US foundations set up specifically for this purpose have proved to be a model with many advantages; similar European foundation(s) could be an invaluable tool for supporting pro-democratic forces in authoritarian countries in particular. The paper also examines two other exemplary models for the European neighbourhood policy: the Swedish practice to channel support through domestic NGOs, and the EU’s own policy, which has only been applied in candidate countries so far, to use local civil society development foundations.

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    Item Type: Working Paper
    Uncontrolled Keywords: NGOs.
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > External relations > human rights & democracy initiatives
    EU policies and themes > External relations > European Neighbourhood Policy
    Countries > Sweden
    Countries > Moldova
    Countries > Ukraine
    Countries > Belarus
    Other > NGOs
    Other > civil society
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > Centre for European Policy Studies (Brussels) > CEPS Working Documents
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 23 Feb 2008
    Page Range: p. 37
    Last Modified: 15 Feb 2011 17:43
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/6679

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