In July, 2023, the international research project ”REDEMOS: Reconfiguring EU Democracy Support – Towards a sustained demos in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood”, became an integral part of the workshop ”Democracy Support Strategies in the European Union’s Neighbourhood”.
The event was marked as part of the 10th edition of the European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS 2023), which took place in Amsterdam between 12-14 July 2023 under the hospices of the European International Studies Association (EISA).
The workshop took place with the participation of three projects from the Horizon Europe Program of the EU: REDEMOS: Reconfiguring EU Democracy Support – Towards a sustained demos in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood; SHAPEDEM-EU: Rethinking and Reshaping the EU’s Democracy Support in its Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood; and EMBRACE: Embracing Change: Overcoming Blockages and Advancing Democracy in the European Neighbourhood.
”Bringing together three sister consortia, which working on similar issues related to democratic challenges in the European Union’s neighbourhoods, we embarked together on a journey to explore innovative frameworks for addressing these challenges and supporting democratic progress. The workshop was organized with the support of partners and members of the REDEMOS project team: Professor Theofanis Exadaktylos from the University of Surrey and Dr. Mădălina Dobrescu from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. At the same time, other participants from the REDEMOS consortium were: Dr. Marina Rabinovici from the Kyiv School of Economics, experts Diana Ranga-Enachi and Mihai Țurcanu from the Institute for Social Development and Initiatives (IDIS) "Viitorul" from the Republic of Moldova and Arusyak Aleksanyan and Ashot Aleksanyan of Yerevan State University", is mentioned in a press release issued by the REDEMOS project team.
The workshop sought to explore the nexus between current affairs and the challenges to democratisation and democracy at large, as well as to establish a platform to pooling collective insights, igniting diiscussions, and building synergies to advance our shared mission – to contribute to the consolidation of the democratic progress in the EU neighbourhood and beyond.
Diana Enachi and Mihai Țurcanu presented, during the workshop, the communication with tittle: " On the nowadays idea of democracy and how can Eastern Europe contribute to it". The authors made an analysis of the concept of democracy prevalent today in the West. They also looked at how liberal democracy, as a set of values and visions, relates to other sets of values and visions, particularly in Eastern Europe, which also claim to represent the idea of democracy. The research also analyzes how liberal democracy relates to the idea of democracy in general, but also to the different stages of its evolution.
The international research project ”REDEMOS: Reconfiguring EU Democracy Support – Towards a sustained demos in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood”, which runs from January 2023 until December 2025, is directed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and brings together a total of 11 academic and research institutions – six universities, four independent think tanks (including IDIS "Viitorul") – and one small and medium-sized enterprise from across Europe. This multi-annual, multi-million research project takes an in-depth look at the full range of political and governance regimes in the EU's eastern neighbourhood, from flawed democratisation in some countries to democratic regression and even repressive authoritarianism in others. REDEMOS aims to break new ground and suggest a comprehensive and transformative overhaul of the conceptualisation, policy-making and implementation of democracy in the EU's eastern neighbourhood.
The overall objective of REDEMOS is to develop a set of innovative policy tools to make EU democracy support policies more efficient, effective and sustainable. The anticipated project outputs will range from a holistic dataset summarising past democracy support actions and programmes to a set of working papers, policy documents, blog articles, visual reports, as well as workshops, conferences and more. Together with the participatory nature of the REDEMOS project, its results will be geared towards increasing citizens' involvement and participation in shaping future democratic structures in the EU's eastern neighbourhood.
The international research project REDEMOS is funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101061738. The Associated Partner University of Surrey has received funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee under grant number 10040721. The Associated Partner University of St. Gallen has received funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, UKRI and SERI. Neither the European Union nor UKRI or SERI can be held responsible for them.
