15.12.2020
Abstract
The examination of lessons the EU’s foreign policy makers can draw from protests in Belarus.
The research paper explores how the Covid-19 crisis is redefining European Union’s geopolitical stance and how the recent events in Belarus can provide lessons for legitimacy reform of the EU’s foreign policies. Treating the Covid-19 pandemic and its accompanying events as an exogenous shock, the paper examines how the perception and prospects of EU’s legitimacy are changing, both within the Union and in Belarus. The document finds that EU’s foreign policy legitimacy will remain limited due to defective decision-making procedures, insufficient funding and Belarussians’ reluctance to the deeper cooperation with the EU. The expansion of qualified majority voting on human rights issues, funding directed to civil society and projects oriented on fostering economic interdependence and free movement might mitigate the shortcomings of bilateral relations and improve the perception of legitimacy both within and outside the Union’s borders.
About the author
Mikołaj Jerzy Bronert obtained a bachelor degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 2018, at the University of Lancaster. In 2020, he graduated from King’s College London with a master’s diploma in European Studies with a specialty in EU Foreign Policies. Mikołaj Jerzy Bronert was a member of a research team examining violent extremism in Mali and Nigeria at Richardson Institute and a researcher for the Department of Political Economy at KCL. Currently, he works at the European Parliament.
#EUlegitimacy #EUForeignPolicy #Belarusprotests #EasternPartnership #Covid-19 #Geopolitics
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