EU democracy promotion and the case of Tunisia: from “policies” to “politics”?

EU democracy promotion policies have been evolving significantly in recent years, especially in relation to the European Neighbourhood. In this view, the Arab Spring showed EU’s substantial failure in accompanying southern Mediterranean countries towards managed and bloodless transitions but was also an opportunity for the EU in order to redress its previous shortcomings. Looking at the specific case of Tunisia, we analyse to what extent the evolution of EU democracy promotion instruments and policies reflect a different approach in which the domestic political actors of the target country would play an increased role.