Another opportunity to fail: Lessons learnt in the Eastern neighbourhood and what prospects for democracy promotion toward the southern neighbours?

This paper aims at evaluating (1) what lessons can be learnt from the EU experience in democracy promotion towards its Eastern neighbours and (2) taking into consideration this experience and the renewed European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) what are the prospects for democracy promotion towards the Southern neighbours. The first section of the paper presents the main elements of the EU experience in promoting democracy in the post-soviet area and the main reasons for its failure. This section will also examine the specific factors that may influence Eastern and Southern countries attitudes toward democracy as well as toward new forms of authoritarianism. The subsequent section, taking into consideration the lessons learnt in democracy promotion toward the Eastern neighbours and the domestic and external peculiarities of each group of countries, evaluates the renewed ENP as introduced by the Joint Communication of May 2011.