THE EUROPEAN UNION’S ROLE AS AN INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRACY PROMOTER

RATIU Camelia (PhD, European Commission, EU Funds for Germany), Camelia.Ratiu@ec.europa.eu

This paper aims at outlining the principles, mechanisms, strategies and instruments that form the core of Brussels’ democratisation policy, as well as its potential and limits. In a first step, the paper briefly discusses the main theoretical approaches to external democracy promotion as well as its characteristics as a policy area. It further outlines the EU’s legal basis and institutional foundations for its democracy promotion policy, as well as its implementation in practice, and finally sums up the main findings.

Keywords: Brussels’ democratisation policy, theoretical approaches, democracy promotion policy, implementation