"The European Union’s (EU) impact on the political governance of
the European neighbourhood is varied and sometimes opposite to
the declared objectives of its democracy support policies. The
democracy promotion literature has to a large extent neglected
the unintended consequences of EU democracy support in Eastern
Europe and the Middle East and North Africa. The EU has left
multiple imprints on the political trajectories of the countries in
the neighbourhood and yet the dominant explanation, highlighting
the EU’s security and economic interests in the two regions,
cannot fully account for the unintended consequences of its policies.
The literature on the ‘pathologies’ of international organisations
offers an explanation, emphasizing the failures of the EU
bureaucracy to anticipate, prevent or reverse the undesired effects
of its democracy support in the neighbourhood."