Breakfast Session under the Chatham House Rule

Left on the Doorstep: Democratic Aspiration vs Authoritarian Consolidation

May 17, 08:30-09:45

Room: Shanghai

The European project was built on the assumption that the prospect of EU membership would anchor democratic reform and that the arc of integration bends towards shared values. Yet in Belarus, the popular uprising was crushed, while Europe watched. And in Georgia, a government that presumably championed integration has moved the country further away from it and turned on the streets that still demand it, while Europe watches. Why do some countries make it through and others stall, slide back, or turn away? What happens to the democratic aspirations of societies whose leaders have abandoned or weaponised the European path? How can entrenched power structures be challenged? Can Europe support people without legitimising the governments that repress them? And should the EU engage where the political commitment to democracy has not merely weakened but reversed?