The European Union's Democracy Promotion Policies in Algeria: Success or Failure?

This article aims at analysing the problem of democratisation in Algeria, with a specific focus on the impact on it of its relations with the European Union within the context of the democracy promotion policies of the EU. Although the EU has expressed ambitious goals regarding democracy promotion in the Mediterranean in general, member state policy preferences within the EU, the weakness of the intervention tools such as the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the Barcelona Process and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), and the EU's short-term rather than long-term concern for political stability have acted as obstacles to the EU playing a role in Algeria.