EU democracy promotion and the case of Tunisia: from “policies” to “politics”?

EU democracy promotion policies have been evolving significantly in recent years, especially in\r\nrelation to the European Neighbourhood. In this view, the Arab Spring showed EU’s substantial\r\nfailure in accompanying southern Mediterranean countries towards managed and bloodless\r\ntransitions but was also an opportunity for the EU in order to redress its previous shortcomings.\r\nLooking at the specific case of Tunisia, we analyse to what extent the evolution of EU democracy\r\npromotion instruments and policies reflect a different approach in which the domestic political\r\nactors of the target country would play an increased role.