Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

The European Partnership for Democracy organized a roundtable on a future European Democracy Consensus on December 8th in Brussels. The roundtable was attended by representatives of the in-coming Czech EU Presidency and the future Swedish EU Presidency, the UK government, the EU Commission and Council secretariat, the European Parliament, Int IDEA, and representatives of a number of think-tanks and NGOs within the EU. The meeting was chaired by the NIMD Executive Director who is the also the interim Chairperson of the EPD.

A future EU Democracy Consensus should provide greater clarity about what democracy assistance is and is not, how the EU provides democracy assistance to third countries and about coherency between the various instruments involved by the EU institutions and the Memberstates. There should also be provisions for a harmonization of support provided by the official insitutions and the support provided by European civil society organizations. There is perhaps not so much a need for new a policy statement as there is for provisions to make the current instruments perform better and to bridge the divisions between the different sectors of EU international cooperation.

The meeting also discussed a roadmap for a debate and decision-making within the EU about a future Democracy Consensus. The first important occasion for a full debate on the subject will be provided at a conference organized by the Czech government and the EPD on March 9 - 11th, 2009, in Prague. A report on the roundtable can be obtained from the EPD secretariat.

The 4th meeting of the EPD Board meeting in Brussels on December 10th, 2008, approved a Europe wide research programme to map current practices in democracy support of EU governments, civil society organizations and private foundations and to document important lessons learned in this field. It will be implemented by Fride and Pasos. Results will be published and made assessible via the EPD website.

Since its launch in April 2008, EPD has commenced providing support to organizations advancing democracy in Armenia, Burma and Zimbabwe. A roundtable on the dialogue between Latin America and the European Union is prepared for February 2009.