Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

According to Mr Verhagen "the declaration of Berlin reaffirms that the promotion of democracy, within and beyond our borders, is a spearhead of EU policy ". As the Minister affirmed in his speech, the experience derived from successive enlargements of the European Union confers on Europe a unique position in democracy assistance worldwide.

How to live up to this expectation and raise Europe's profile in democracy-assistance is one of the questions addressed in the book, which contains essays by leading European scholars such as Peter Burnell and Richard Youngs. The editors of the book are Roel von Meijenfeldt and Marieke van Doorn, respectively Director and Policy Officer with the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD).

The NIMD is an organization of political parties in The Netherlands for political parties in young democracies. The NIMD supports joint initiatives of parties to improve the democratic system in their country. The NIMD also supports the institutional development of political parties, helps them develop party programmes and assists them in efforts to enhance relations with civil society organizations and the media.

The NIMD was founded in 2000 by seven Dutch political parties (CDA, PvdA, VVD, Groenlinks, D66, Christen Unie en SGP). The NIMD currently works with more than 150 political parties from 17 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe.