Abstract:

The European Union approaches its Eastern neighbours that it became direct neighbours with the 2004 enlargement within the frameworks of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership Initiative. The European Union by aiming approximation of its neighbours with the Union norms, values and standards allocates a special place to promoting democracy within the context of these policies. The aim of this study is to identify the European Union’s emphasis on democracy promotion in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, that it defines as the Eastern neighbours and to identify the challenges to its normative power in the Eastern neighbourhood. Within the scope of the European Union’s democracy promotion in its relations with the Eastern neighbours, official documents on the European Union’s institutional policies towards its Eastern neighbours and the bilateral documents with the six countries participating at the Eastern Partnership are used as primary sources; and the prominent publications in the literature are used as secondary sources. It is inferred that the European Union’s democracy promotion cannot be dissociated from its security approaches and it addresses its Eastern neighbours within the security context. the European Union’s interests especially for its secured access to energy sources and Russia’s influence in the Eastern Partnership countries are determinant in the European Union’s democracy promotion. However, this study argues that the domestic contexts and the ambitions and wills of the third countries to realise the political reforms are determining factors for the European Union’s effectiveness or ineffectiveness in the region.

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