The European Union’s Global Strategy: Making support for democracy and human rights a key priority

The EU Global Strategy is a unique opportunity to (re)commit to making support for democracy and human rights a key priority of European Union external action and to reflect on how the EU’s instruments to promote these priorities could be further strengthened. However, political interest in support of democracy and human rights currently appears to be at low ebb across the EU. This new paper from the European Think Tanks Group (ECDPM, DIE, IDDRI, ODI) argues that the ongoing consultation process on the Global Strategy shows how difficult it will be to get a clear commitment from EU institutions and EU member states to make democracy and human rights a key priority of EU external action. We set out the four challenges to doing this and propose solutions.