Europe as a Democracy Promoter

ESI was invited to Constanta in Romania to contribute to the conference "Europe as a Democracy Promoter", organised by the Romanian Academic Society. This three-days-conference aimed at exploring the European Union's role in promoting democracy at its periphery. In particular it looked at the effect of EU conditionality on the democratic transformation and performance in Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia as well as democracy promotion in wider Europe. Other issues discussed were transatlantic approaches and cooperation and their impact on democracy promotion.

The conference hosted participants from the European Commission, the National Endowment for Democracy, The German Marshall Fund of the United States, the German Foreign Ministry, Romanian Government officials, and academics as well as representatives of other European states and institutions.

ESI President Gerald Knaus spoke on the strengths and limits of EU conditionality and gave concluding remarks at the end of the conference. He stressed the importance of the concrete goal of EU membership for the quality and dynamic of transformation processes in countries preparing for membership negotiations.