Contrasting EU and EU member states' democracy support action

The REDEMOS Policy Paper D2.3 examines the normative consistency and instrumental complementarity of democracy support efforts by EU institutions and Member States across the Eastern Neighbourhood. The paper proposes a new analytical framework for evaluating democracy support, structured along two dimensions: normative consistency – the degree to which the EU and its Member States promote a shared set of democratic standards – and instrumental complementarity – the extent to which their operational approaches reinforce and compensate for each other. Drawing on REDEMOS Deliverables D2.1 and D2.2, which provide a systematic stocktaking of democracy support initiatives by the EU and key EU Member States in the Eastern Neighbourhood drawing on EU and OECD Official Development Assistance data, and using comparative case study approach, the paper assesses the degree of consistency and complementarity for all six Eastern Neighbourhood countries: Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. Consistency in norms is assessed with respect to the rule of law, fundamental rights, civil society empowerment, and resilience, while complementarity in instruments is evaluated in relation to the nature and channels of democracy support delivery, sectoral prioritisation, and agility.