Democracy promotion organisation established
A new pan-European human-rights umbrella organisation that hopes to make it easier for pro-democracy groups to access European funds was launched in Brussels on 15 April.
The European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) also wants to fill gaps not currently filled by EU, national government and NGO pro-democracy programmes.
The new foundation was launched at a high-profile event attended by the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and by two former presidents Václav Havel of the Czech Republic and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique.
In a key-note speech, Barroso said that the EU had allocated €1.1 billion to support democratisation between 2007 and 2013. He also said that the main region of the world where democratic regimes are in a minority is the Middle East.
"We are convinced that if this region took greater steps towards democracy, it would one day cease to be a hotspot of tension and conflict," he said.
"The promotion of democracy and human rights is a key political objective of the European Union in its relations with third countries, particularly in terms of cooperation and association agreements and political dialogues."
Maarten van den Berg of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, one of the founding members of the group, said that the new foundation would foster the exchange of knowledge between NGOs involved in promoting democracy. He also said the foundation would help smaller projects around the world access funding.
The new foundation has received €1.7 million from Holland's national lottery fund. The government of the Czech Republic has also promised €100,000. Fifteen NGOs from around Europe are members of the new foundation, whose headquarters will be in Brussels. It will have two members of staff.
A meeting of the board in June is expected to decide which countries should be particularly targeted for the foundation's first projects, although it is likely that most attention in the first few years will be directed towards Africa and former communist states.
Author: Mark Latham