REconfiguring EU DEMOcracy Support ? Towards a sustained demos in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood

Project Information

REDEMOS

Grant agreement ID: 101061738

DOI

10.3030/101061738

Project closed

EC signature date 9 June 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2025

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 2 313 017,50

EU contribution

€ 2 313 017,50

Coordinated by

NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REDEMOS (REconfiguring EU DEMOcracy Support ? Towards a sustained demos in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-02-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Three out of the six eastern neighbours (Armenia, Ukraine and Moldova) feature democratisation processes in which many of the basic norms and practices of democracy remain locked within a hybrid regime state, demonstrating examples of both good and poor governance, while Georgia is on a path of democratic regression. Societies in Azerbaijan and Belarus remain locked into repressive and authoritarian regime practices marked by the evisceration of political opposition, and grave and persistent violation of basic rights and liberties. At the same time, EU democracy support over the past decade has struggled to generate “deep and sustainable democracy”; it remains rooted in a static, minimalist conception, focusing mainly on institutional and procedural dimensions of rule (transfer), while downgrading citizen engagement to a second order status. REDEMOS pursues three objectives:
(A) Retrospective Scrutiny of EU/EU Member States’ democracy support efforts in the eastern neighbourhood between 2010-2022 and of the six countries’ individual discreet efforts at democratisation.
(B) Identify international and EU funding for democracy support in the eastern neighbourhood through a comprehensive and comparable dataset of the scope and depth of EU democracy aid.
(C) Take stock of democracy building efforts in the six eastern neighbourhood countries in a comparable manner.
REDEMOS will generate concrete scientific and societal impact and contribute to the reinvigoration of democratic governance in the eastern neighbourhood through six pathways: (a) creation of high-quality new knowledge; (b) strengthening of human capital in research and innovation; (c) fostering diffusion of knowledge and open source; and by (d) addressing EU policy priorities and global challenges through research and innovation; (e) delivering benefits and impact through research and innovation missions; and (f) strengthening the uptake of research innovation in society.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Apart from coordination/management, work during the first reporting period has begun in all of the 10 REDEMOS work packages. It has focused particularly on WP2, WP3 and WP4, engaging in a retrospective analysis of EU/EU Member States’ democracy support efforts between 2010-2022, approximately. It has also focused on WP8, revolving around the conceptualization of the “demos cycle”, WP9, generating awareness of project outcomes among policy/expert audiences in the field of EU democracy support and democracy building in the eastern neighbourhood and among the public, and WP10, ensuring compliance with the ‘ethics requirements’. Apart from the generation of six ethics requirements-oriented deliverables, one Research Ethics Guide, one Data Management Plan, one Gender Mainstreaming Plan, and one Travel Handbook, REDEMOS has produced four deliverables: (1) in the framework of WP2, one working paper, entitled ‘Stocktaking of EU democracy support towards the eastern neighbourhood’ (D2.1); (2) in the framework of WP3, one working paper, entitled ‘Conceptual framework EU democracy funding research’ (D3.1); in the framework of WP4, entitled ‘Democratic progress, stasis, regression & authoritarianisation in the eastern neighbourhood’ (D4.1); and in the framework of WP8, one working paper, entitled ‘The demos cycle’ (D8.1).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

As the project is still early in its implementation, most impacts will materialise during the second reporting period. Nonetheless, significant results have already been achieved and impact generated: e.g. working paper D2.1 identified and analysed more than 300 EU democracy support actions in the eastern neighbourhood whilst D4.1 provides a comprehensive, largely empirical analysis of democratic progress, stasis, regression and authoritarianisation in all six eastern neighbours. Both working papers offer a wealth of new empirical data that will feed into and inform qualitative work in other work packages. Likewise, working paper D3.1 and D8.1 respectively provide entirely new conceptual insights into the conceptualisation of EU democracy funding research and societally rooted democratic development, contributing to the scholarly literature on democratisation and external democracy support.
The co-led structure of REDEMOS, with five work packages being co-led by eastern partners, has actively contributed to their concrete capacity-building and helped them advance their familiarity with the concrete research pursued and the application of respective methodologies/concepts, as well as of state-of-the-art research management practices and the latest research ethics standards, rules and regulations for research activities involving humans.
REDEMOS has actively worked towards strengthening the uptake of its research innovation in society in multiple ways. First, the project has actively engaged with stakeholders across Europe, and in particular it has conducted policy briefings and provided input and feedback to policymakers. Secondly, through the conduct of one large-scale focus group, the project has actively contributed to fostering citizens’ participation in science and the provision of a unique platform for democratic deliberation. This will be advanced as preparations for holding the first set of mini-publics across the EU’s eastern neighbourhood are about to be concluded. Thirdly, works are underway as far as the creation of a Q-methodology-centred app is concerned that will allow users to gauge elite perceptions and images of the EU as a force for democracy-building. Fourthly, this is linked to ongoing works, leading to the production of innovative, political education-oriented web-based, gif-animated narratives that will enhance societies’ uptake.