TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline how the EU figures out the importance of strengthening its relations with Egypt as one of the most strategic countries in the region to keep the union secured and stable. The paper also assesses to what extent the EU succeeds to promote democracy in Egypt.Design/methodology/approach The EU pursues its policy through a series of both bilateral and multilateral agreements with Egypt aiming at positioning their relations in a strategic context. The research adopted different approaches as descriptive and analytical ones.Findings Following the Arab uprisings, the EU was caught by surprise and announced a paradigm shift in its relations and introduced a set of policies to foster democracy promotion that witnessed some successes but with extremely modest results in some areas compared to the costs of the process. The EU succeeded in important reforms in trade liberalization while it did not bring clear changes in the political arena in Egypt.Originality/value The findings of this paper convey that the Arab uprisings were a wake-up call for the EU. It was the right time for the EU to conduct such a strategic and sincere reflection based on the role it wants to play in the changing region. In addition, findings prove that the EU’s response to revolutionary events has been weak and hesitant, and the EU has not an effective role in promoting democracy in Egypt. VL - 8 IS - 6 SN - 2631-3561 DO - 10.1108/REPS-03-2019-0034 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/REPS-03-2019-0034 AU - Zahran Alaa Hosny PY - 2019 Y1 - 2019/01/01 TI - EU’s democracy promotion in Egypt before and after Arab uprisings T2 - Review of Economics and Political Science PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 605 EP - 621 Y2 - 2024/04/19 ER -