№025: The European Union and India: Partners in Democracy Promotion?
№025: The European Union and India: Partners in Democracy Promotion?

Author(s): Patryk Kugiel
Subject(s): Governance, International relations/trade, Developing nations, Geopolitics
Published by: PISM Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych
Keywords: democracy; democratization; India; Asia; Asia and Pacific; Europe; European Endowment for Democracy (EED); European Union; international cooperation; South Asia
Summary/Abstract: On February 10, leaders of the European Union and India met to take stock of the state of their strategic partnership. The agenda of the 12th EU-India Summit featured, among others, a discussion about the past year’s developments in Northern Africa and the possibilities of assisting the ongoing changes in the region. As the author points out, engaging India in this context will require a better understanding of the Indian approach to democracy support, and a frank dialogue about the differences between the EU and India in this particular area. He then goes on to explain the reasons for these divergences, and indentifies possible avenues of cooperation. The paper argues that different approaches to democracy ought to be considered as complimenting, and not necessarily contradicting each other. The EU and India can work together on some very specific issues, even if the differences turn out to be impossible to bridge.

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