The EU’s normative power is increasingly perceived to be in decline – by scholars, who argue that it only applies to European self-perception, as well as by recipients of imported European normative concepts who perceive the EU’s attitude as biased or hypocritical. Daniela Huber’s article contributes to the debate on whether Europe is indeed a normative power (or not) by analyzing how Europe acts and is being perceived in the “real world”. For this purpose, it examines the case of EU democracy promotion in the Palestinian Authority from two perspectives. First, it contrasts the EU’s self-perception as a democracy promoter with the perception of the recipients. Second, it analyzes the concrete democracy promotion practices of the EU and explains how they vary. The findings are mixed: While the EU indeed perceives itself as a normative power and often acts accordingly, it is not necessarily perceived as such by the recipients. Furthermore, the EU’s behavior becomes distorted when it perceives the recipient’s identity as incompatible with its founding values.