European, on rise, meets eastern Democrat, much-admired (8)
I believe the answer is:
esteemed
'much-admired' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'european on rise meets eastern democrat' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'rise' says the letters should be written backwards.
'eastern' becomes 'e'.
'democrat' becomes 'd'.
'meets' backwards is 'steem'.
'e'+'steem'+'e'+'d'='ESTEEMED'
(Other definitions for esteemed that I've seen before include "Respected and valued, like customer" , "Highly admired" , "Highly regarded" , "Highly respected like good customer" , "Prestigious" .)