The EU External Democracy Promotion POLICY in the Arab Spring Region:

between Continuity and Renewal

 

Wafaa El Sherbini¹ and Nesreen K. El Molla²

^[1] Prof. Dr, Cairo University, Faculty of Economic and Political Science, EGYPT, wafaaelcherbini@feps.edu.eg

² Ms., Cairo University, Faculty of Economic and Political Science, EGYPT, nelmolla@hotmail.com

 

 

Abstract

Throughout history, the EU has often sought to establish and present itself as a normative power spreading its norms beyond its borders, as well as a main interlocutor in the domain of democracy promotion; particularly in its South of the Mediterranean neighborhood.

Despite this fact, the reform/democratic deficit in that neighborhood showed that the EU efforts to promote democracy have not been up to the aspirations of the countries of the region.

 Moreover, with the outbreak of the Arab Spring events, many analysts argued that the political transformations that took place in the Southern Mediterranean region have been another visible failure for the EU democracy promotion efforts and its projections for the entire region, as the EU neither anticipated nor had a role in the formulation of these political transformations.

Alternatively, and in order to swiftly meet this new reality, the EU immediately launched a quick series of incentive – based democracy promotion policies that pledged to refocus on building deep democracies, promoting inclusive growth, advocating for more concrete reform measures, and developing civil society partnerships with its neighbors. The EU also advocated for a paradigm shift in its approach to promote democracy beyond its bureaucratic frameworks, policies and tools which - in many cases- proved as being inefficient.

The paper examines the development of the EU incentive-based external democracy policy towards the Arab Spring countries of the Southern Mediterranean region and examines the elements of continuity and renewal in such policy as a result of the events of the Arab Spring.

The paper concludes that the elements of continuity were more evident than the elements of renewal, particularly since the EU relied heavily on revisiting and re-labelling its democracy promotion discourse to meet with the arising challenge of the Arab Spring events.

Keywords: EU, Democracy Promotion, Arab Spring