Background paper

Summary This paper grapples with several questions central to the RE-ENGAGE research agenda: How do geopolitical shifts and interventions by non-Western actors affect the commitments of Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina to building functional democracy and these countries’ aspirations for EU integration? To what extent, and by what means,…

Summary This paper examines the dynamics of hybrid regimes in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, focusing on their susceptibility to foreign interference amidst geopolitical tensions. It explores how these regimes, characterized by a mix of democratic and authoritarian practices, create fertile grounds for external actors like Russia, China, and Turkey to…

Summary: Almost three years into the war in Ukraine, the EU enlargement remains central to the EU’s efforts for resilience and stability in the Western Balkans and the Eastern Neighbourhood. In a fast-changing geopolitical situation, the EU’s threat perception of external actors depends on their behavior regarding the EU integration…

Summary This paper presents the conceptual background and methodological approach designed for the RE-ENGAGE foresight exercise and scenario development process. The foresight and scenarios designed focus specifically on the involvement of key external actors (Russia, China, Türkiye and the United States) in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans in the…

Summary: This study analyses the main interests and modes of engagement of the dominant EU’s actual and potential competitors and other external actors in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe. The paper specifically zooms on four such actors – Russia, China, Türkiye, and the U.S. – and outlines their long-term…

This paper examines the hybrid governance in Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Albania, focusing on their capacity for democratic resilience and the effectiveness of EU democracy promotion, with attention to electoral systems, political parties, judicial independence, and media freedom.

This background paper delivers a comprehensive understanding of the post- independence trajectories of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine toward the consolidation of hybridity, understood as a distinct type of regime that oscillates between democratic and authoritarian practices of power.

This paper examines the policies and instruments the EU has deployed to promote democracy in the Western Balkans and the eastern neighbourhood