SHAPEDEM-EU sets out to rethink, reshape, and review the EU’s democracy support policies in its Eastern & Southern Neighbourhoods. Amidst the increasing contestation of the EU and the weakening impact of its policies in the Neighbourhoods, SHAPEDEM-EU applies an entirely novel approach to democracy support. The approach conceives of democracy support as a social practice requiring the collective democratic learning of all stakeholders involved. The consortium will pilot test a Democracy Learning Loop to create new channels and tools for interaction between the EU and its neighbours and transfer these findings into policy recommendations for an improved EU policy toolkit. SHAPEDEM-EU represents a multi-national and multifaceted research consortium of academic, think tank, and civil society institutions based in the EU and the Southern and Eastern Neighbourhoods. The consortium will apply mixed-methods to collect, assess, and generate policies related to democracy support in the six case countries of Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia. We will investigate the role of EU member states, key EU institutions, third country actors, and international organisations. The project results will lead to improved EU practices in the region. In all project phases, the impact of gender equality & digital transformations in democracy support will be examined. The findings will be communicated and disseminated through SHAPEDEM-EU’s comprehensive Democracy Support Database and an online Digital Dashboard. Our results will contribute to the creation of sustainable tools for an EU policy toolkit that supports democracy in its Southern & Eastern Neighbourhoods, thus increasing the EU’s accountability, transparency, effectiveness, and trustworthiness and making neighbourhood countries more resilient, equitable, and responsive to local needs.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has ended the post-Cold War European security order, creating new realities in countries neighbouring the EU and shattering illusions in several member states about the Kremlin’s true intentions in wider Europe. By granting candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova and a European perspective to Georgia, the EU has rejected a Russian sphere of influence and instead determined where its future borders should lie. But this decision has not yet led to policies tailored to effectively respond to a geopolitical context which also sees China and other state actors competing for influence. The Eastern Partnership still needs to be fitted with security and connectivity components. In the accession process, existing formats had already reached their limits with, inter alia, the obstructionism by certain member states that is linked to the divisive issue of EU internal reform. This has cost the EU a lot of credibility in the Western Balkans and will take years to resolve. REUNIR, a project with 12 partners from across Europe, examines how the EU can strengthen its foreign and security toolboxes to bolster the resilience and transformation of (potential) candidate countries in a new age of international relations. REUNIR’s foresight approach takes the fundamental uncertainty and openness of alternative futures seriously. Adding the effects of ‘protean power’ unleashed in unforeseen circumstances to a multi-disciplinary approach to the research of the EU’s ‘control power’ in relations with strategic rivals, REUNIR empirically assesses foreign threats to the military, socio-economic and democratic resilience of 9 neighbouring countries, determines capability shortfalls, maps local perceptions of the EU’s support and political perspectives inside the EU on neighbourhood relations. Outlining scenarios up to 2035, REUNIR offers evidence-based policy recommendations to mitigate malign foreign interference and strengthen the EU’s external action.

The EUNPACK project unpacks EU crisis response mechanisms, with the aim to increase their conflict sensitivity and efficiency. By combining bottom–up perspectives with an institutional approach, EUNPACK will increase our understanding of how EU crisis responses function and are received on the ground in crisis areas. This entails exploring local agencies and perceptions in target countries without losing sight of the EU’s institutions and their expectations and ambitions. It also entails examining the whole cycle of crisis, from pre-crisis, through crisis, and into post-crisis phase. EUNPACK analyses two gaps in EU crisis response. First, the intentions–implementation gap, which relates to 1) the capacity to make decisions and respond with one voice and to deploy the necessary resources, 2) how these responses are implemented on the ground by various EU institutions and member states, and 3) how other actors – local and international – enhance or undermine the EU’s activities. Second, the project addresses the gap between the implementation of EU policies and approaches, and how these policies and approaches are received and perceived in target countries, what we refer to as the implementation¬–local reception/perceptions gap. Our main hypothesis is that the severity of the two gaps is a decisive factor for the EU’s impacts on crisis management and thereby its ability to contribute more effectively to problem-solving on the ground. We analyse these gaps through cases that reflect the variation of EU crisis responses in three concentric areas surrounding the EU: the enlargement area (Kosovo, Serbia), the neighbourhood area (Ukraine, Libya), and the extended neighbourhood (Mali, Iraq, Afghanistan). The results of our research will enable us to present policy recommendations fine-tuned to making the EU’s crisis response mechanisms more conflict and context sensitive, and thereby more efficient and sustainable.

MILETUS addresses capacity building in the field of virtual, real and blended mobility runs (MR) at Serbian and TURIL (Territory of the Ukraine as recognized by international law) higher education institutions (HEI). By creating the needed governance on a ministerial and institutional level, MILETUS achieves the improvement of Master graduates’ employability chances in companies working internationally and the quality enhancement of PhD students’ research, and thus their contribution to high quality research in the partner countries.To build students mobility capacity, governance of ministries responsible for HE will be improved and functions of existing International Relations Offices at HEIs will be extended or founded newly. Teaching staff will be methodologically prepared for supervision of MR and necessary learning materials will be prepared. Focus on students with disabilities will open up mobility learning experiences to a wider range of students, primarily as a result of tapping into potential of virtual mobility.These virtual MRs for Master students will include tasks that enable mobilizing and developing skills that allow for working in international geographically dispersed teams, under consideration of competences expected of graduates by employers. Deployment of mobility programs addresses the need for broadening collaboration research circle for PhD students ultimately improving the quality of their research.The main outcomes of the project are:• improved governance of students’ mobility programs on a ministerial and institutional levels• framework for virtual, real and blended MRs to guide future implementation also for nonparticipating HEIs• enhanced teaching methodologies during MRs• solid learning basis for students participating in MRs• eased access to mobility programs for students with disabilities• enhanced employability chances for graduates by developing international skills• and broader research collaboration circle for PhD student