EU actors and instruments addressing the autocratisation challenge in the EU’s dissensus-stricken neighbourhood

Abstract

Many states in the European Union's (EU) neighbourhood face challenges to their democratic systems, with some leaning closer to autocracy than democracy. Examining the interaction between EU and domestic actors in these countries, along with the instruments they employ to express preferences for or against establishing liberal democratic regimes, is a crucial and urgent topic. This panel seeks to address this urgency by developing more specific knowledge over the conceptualisation of dissensus on liberal democracy in the European neighbourhood, and by mapping a toolbox of instruments that the EU deploys to promote democracy and/or counter autocratisation in its neighbourhood. Thus, this panel focuses on the EU's response to various forms of dissensus on liberal democracy expressed within the broader European region and its immediate neighbourhood, including countries covered by the enlargement agenda (e.g. the Western Balkans, Turkey, and, more recently, Ukraine and Moldova) and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The panel invites contributions that analyse the strategies and instruments employed by the EU to promote liberal-democratic reforms, exploring the approach and evolution of the EU’s toolbox for countering democratic backsliding and autocratisation. Key questions include identifying the EU actors that most extensively engage with domestic counterparts, their approach, and their means for promoting democracy and/or countering autocratisation. Additionally, the panel invites papers that explore variations in the EU's response to autocratisation based on a country's relationship with the EU and its regional context within the EU's neighbourhood. This panel welcomes papers utilising various theoretical approaches, concepts and methodologies, including constructivist theories, democratisation theories, institutionalist theories, theories of European integration, and comparative case studies, to provide insights into these critical issues.

Title	Details
Rule of law enforcement through the transactional approach of the RRF: Insights from the Polish, Hungarian, Slovak, and Maltese plans	View Paper Details
An Analytical Framework for Assessing the EU's Response to the Autocratisation Challenge in its Neighbourhood	View Paper Details
The EU's response to the autocratisation challenge in Turkey	View Paper Details