The Latin American region is at the edge of not being considered a democratic territory. In the 2022 Democracy Index of The Economist, the entire region scored at 5.79, which is below 6, the threshold beyond which democracies are considered flawed. Before the 2008 financial crisis, the region scored 6.43. This index considers 72 countries […]
Democracy
After some prior success and many limitations, left-wing governments are back in Latin America. Whether or not they can move further in fighting inequality depends on the policy space to implement a redistributive agenda. Unfortunately, the social and geopolitical conditions are now less favourable than before, and leftist governments might face increasing obstacles ahead. After […]
20 years ago, the leaders of the EU and the Western Balkans committed themselves to the Thessaloniki Declaration. In the first few lines, they agreed on the unequivocal support towards the European perspective of the Western Balkan countries. The future of the Balkans was to be within the European Union. The Thessaloniki Declaration was an […]
Lula was elected president with a tight result in a divided and polarised Brazil, along with the most centre-right Congress since 1988. The economy is stagnant and expectations are high. His challenge will now be to stabilise democracy, build economic credibility, put Brazil back at the international stage and reconstruct the environmental and social agenda […]
While offering candidate status for EU accession to Ukraine was the right decision, stalling the accession of the Western Balkans however was a big strategic mistake – one that will be difficult to mend.
In its new methodology of the accession process, the EU has defined the rule-of-law as one of its fundamentals simnce 2020, underlining its importance as a core European value. All countries of the Western Balkan, despite reform efforts in the past and present, are struggling with organised crime and corruption, clientelism in their institutions, a weak judiciary and low trust of citizens in the system. The poor condition of the rule of law undermines the public’s trust in the effectiveness of democracy. In the long run, this can have disastrous effects on the democratic consolidation in the Western Balkans.
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