On December 1, 2025, Dr Ritsa Panagiotou (Senior Research Fellow, KEPE) participated in a workshop at the Robert Schuman Center (European University Institute, Florence) on \u201cThe Transatlantic Transfer in wider Europe: Democracy in Crisis\u201d. The workshop was attended by representatives of various European universities and policy institutes, who addressed the crucial question: how much of the observed democratic decline of the Western Balkans – and Europe in general \u2013 can be attributed to external geopolitical and geoeconomic influences? The discussion focused on the impact of the dramatic recent and ongoing erosion of democracy within the USA, in terms not only of the official \u2013 institutional and political \u2013 fallout of the US\u2019s backsliding, but also the transatlantic linkages between the religious right and other right-wing groups, which facilitate the transfer of money, talking points, and policy initiatives from the United States to Europe. The Workshop was organized in four panels, to assess the combined effect of these antidemocratic tendencies. The first two panels addressed each of the six Western Balkan countries (including in-depth analyses of foreign antidemocratic influence from special rapporteurs). The third panel offered a comparative perspective from Central and Eastern Europe, while the fourth panel considered – from an even wider European perspective – the interplay between democracy and the transatlantic transfer of authoritarian rhetoric and practices.<\/p>\n
Dr Panagiotou\u2019s remarks focused on how the ongoing political and institutional erosion of democracy in the United States (which is evident on many fronts) is impacting Europe. The negative effect on Europe is apparent first and foremost in the turmoil that has been caused in practical terms: security (future of NATO, support for Ukraine), economics (tariffs), and politics (the US Administration\u2019s continuous derision towards the European Union, the President\u2019s admiration of autocrats globally) and much more. Moreover, in addition to the inevitable implications of what this narrative means for the future of the Euro-Atlantic alliance, this turmoil has exacerbated Europe\u2019s own challenges regarding democratic backsliding and the rise of the far right on the Continent: the fact that the Trump Presidency is directly questioning the raison d\u2019 etre of the EU, and is openly endorsing and supporting far right political parties in Europe (parties that are largely Eurosceptic, support and are supported by Russia, are against EU enlargement and are climate change deniers) can ultimately be considered an existential threat to Europe.<\/p>\n
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