democracy promotion

Russia's full-scale invasion has reinforced Ukraine's civic resilience and democratic aspirations. The EU now faces the challenge of turning that public trust into lasting institutional reform.

The EU's enlargement policy remains a powerful tool—but in hybrid regimes, legal reforms alone are no longer enough. Without rebuilding trust and tackling informal power structures, enlargement risks reinforcing the very systems it seeks to transform.

The EU is still seen as the Western Balkans’ anchor for stability and modernisation. But where reforms remain invisible and institutions remain captured, European support risks strengthening expectations without delivering democratic trust.

The Democracy School Framework for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia provides a comprehensive roadmap for strengthening democratic governance beyond formal institutional reform. Combining practical training with country-specific analysis, it equips political, civic and public-sector actors with the tools to tackle corruption, improve accountability, counter disinformation, foster inclusive participation and advance democratic resilience in support of long-term European integration.

This paper examines how persistent trust deficits and fragile social cohesion shape EU democracy promotion in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Drawing on original survey-vignette data from Sarajevo and Tuzla and process tracing of EU-funded democracy initiatives, it shows how low institutional trust, perceptions of elite capture, and weak local ownership constrain democratic resilience despite strong public support for EU integration

This paper examines how acute political crisis and mass civic mobilisation are reshaping trust, social cohesion, and EU democracy promotion in Serbia. Drawing on original survey-vignette data and process tracing, it shows how rising horizontal trust alongside collapsing institutional trust conditions citizens’ engagement with reform, complicates EU interventions, and exposes the limits of democracy promotion in a hybrid regime under strain