Debates on the conditionality of EU funds have risen up the EU agenda and will not go away anytime soon. The issue has come to the forefront because of new rules for allocating funds within the EU, which also have important implications for the union’s external aid amid a growing trend of authoritarianism around the world.
The reforms the EU is making to ensure that internally disbursed EU funds do not bankroll democratic backsliding in member states should inform Brussels’ diplomatic agenda too. Its current funding of various authoritarian-leaning regimes overseas sits uneasily with the EU’s internal efforts to condition funds on political values and clashes with the union’s goals for international development and foreign policy.