Trust, anger and the limits of EU democracy promotion

Trust, anger and the limits of EU democracy promotion

From ECFR ON AIR by ECFR

December 19, 2025 · 36 min

About this episode

The episode explores the complexities of EU democracy promotion through informal power dynamics in countries seeking EU membership.

In the EU’s enlargement debate, attention usually centres on Brussels—legal benchmarks, progress reports and diplomatic bargaining. But in countries hoping to join the bloc, politics is often decided via informal power networks, fragile institutions and the everyday effort of navigating uncertainty.  This week, The Neighbourhood shifts from the top-down to the ground level as Jessica Hendrick speaks with Morten Bøås, research professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), who is leading RE-ENGAGE’s comparative fieldwork across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.  Together, they take listeners behind the scenes of how the project gathers original data in places shaped by war, protest and political pressure. Methods range from training local university students to conduct trust surveys to vignette experiments that test how citizens respond to crises and competing external “relief packages” from China, the EU, Russia and Turkey.  What do early findings…

People in this episode

Guest: Morten Bøås

Topics covered

  • political networks
  • fieldwork
  • EU enlargement
  • democracy promotion
  • trust

Keywords

  • Albania
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Georgia
  • Moldova
  • Serbia
  • Ukraine
  • trust surveys
  • vignette experiments

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Brussels, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine, China, Russia, Turkey

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