In response to great-power rivalry and the weaponization of interdependence, the EU has adopted a geopolitical approach to economic statecraft. To build resilience and maintain its international credibility, the union will have to balance its pursuit of economic security with broader foreign policy goals.

The EU’s focus on security has caused it to shift from a proactive to a defensive democracy support strategy. As a new institutional cycle begins, the union risks downgrading its global democracy promotion efforts too much and relinquishing one of its distinctive geopolitical advantages.

If, for many years, the EU dangerously neglected the need for hard, defensive power it now risks moving to other extreme – giving hard power such pride of place that it detracts from the more consequential trends that will redefine the world order.

The 2020-2024 Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy has been instrumental in advancing EU democracy support through a broad range of commitments. Yet, the rapid evolution of challenges to democracy has outpaced the Action Plan’s capacity to adapt. 

After more than a decade of democratic regression, three major crises have acted to reshape global politics in recent years: climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic legacy, and geopolitical conflict.

In his new book, Senior Fellow Richard Youngs delves into how global crises—from the climate crisis, the post-neoliberal economic shift, to rising geopolitical tensions—are reshaping democracies worldwide. While today's multi-crisis era fuels authoritarianism in some regions, others find new paths to democratic renewal.

The political debate in Europe is increasingly focused on whether to engage or isolate radical-right parties. A European democracy pact could help the EU mitigate the growing risk to liberal pluralism.

In the next institutional term, EU leaders must rejuvenate and prioritize democracy support policies.

In one of the most striking campaign pledges so far, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has announced that she will create a European Democracy Shield if she is re-appointed after the EU elections in June.

As the EU accelerates the process of adding new member states, it also needs to rethink the relationship between enlargement and democracy. The union should develop a “Copenhagen plus” approach to encourage more comprehensive democratic reforms in candidate countries.