Assessing EU Support to Governance Reform

While the promotion of good governance has long been at the heart of EU’s assistance to peacebuilding, stability, and security, it has gained yet more prominence among the set of EU values upheld in the post-Lisbon EU (common) foreign policy agenda, closely associated – and sometimes used interchangeably – with related values such as human rights, democratisation, and the rule of law (Hout 2013).

Authors

Stina Lundström, Matteo Dressler

The linkages between good governance and peacebuilding have been foremost explored through the lense of malfunctioning and poor governance as a root cause of conflict. However, there is no solid evidence for what type of support to governance reform is most likely to lead to effective, inclusive, and sustainable peacebuilding. This scoping study will touch on this debate through the prism of EU foreign policy, by identifying the inherent dilemmas and tensions related to EU governance reform support. It will do so by analysing the different EU approaches and actors, their stated aims and methods.