A new beginning? Democracy support in EU external relations under the Lisbon Treaty
Author: Ekaterina Bogdanova, post-Soviet region Researcher, European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) Carlos Hernandez, Deputy Executive Director, European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) Dr Jacek Kucharczyk, President, Institute of Public Affairs, Warsaw, Poland Jeff Lovitt, Executive Director, PASOS (Policy Association for an Open Society)
Publisher: PASOS Secretariat, Prague, Czech Republic
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In November 2009, the Council of the European Union approved a set of Council Conclusions on Democracy Support in the EU’s External Relations, including an Agenda for Action. With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, and the creation of an EU diplomatic service (European External Action Service), an opportunity now exists to provide a clear framework for democracy support in EU external relations.
A new beginning? Democracy support in EU external relations under the Lisbon Treaty, the latest PASOS policy brief, was carried out by the Institute of Public Affairs, Poland, who prepared it in co-operation with the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) and the PASOS Secretariat.
The policy brief sets out a number of policy recommendations for EU institutions as follows:
• Prior to the full implementation of the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty, the Spanish and Belgian EU Council Presidencies, in close co-operation with the Council Secretariat and the Office of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, should lead the establishment of a multi-stakeholder dialogue mechanism to push forward the approved Agenda for Action on democracy support in external action. This mechanism should include a process for monitoring the implementation of the Agenda for Action in pilot countries.
• The European External Action Service (EEAS) should feature a broader representation from the side of the European Commission, including the
Directorates-General involved in development policy, Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, humanitarian aid, and financial management of external programmes.
• The EU should develop mechanisms for building political consensus and democratisation agendas in third countries. This should be done by complementing existing technical assistance instruments with new tools based on fostering political dialogue and local ownership. Similarly, the development of country-based political agendas for democratic consolidation will establish the basis for better alignment of EU democracy support tools with locally owned reform agendas.
• The EU democracy support community should develop a new range of instruments to work with political society in ways that build on the EU’s past experience in the field of institutional strengthening and capacity-building, especially during the EU enlargement to Central Europe.
• The structure of the EEAS should reflect the different areas of EU external actions based on geographic desks and horizontal policy desks. This scheme should include a Unit on Democracy and Human Rights that would be in charge of devising policy priorities as well as ensuring better mainstreaming of human rights and democracy issues across all EU external action (geographic desks).
• The EC delegations should improve their capacity to implement the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) Country-Based Support Schemes. This requires not only reinforcing the expertise of staff at the delegation level, but also devising the necessary methodologies for a more inclusive and participatory process of identification of policy priorities that will incorporate stakeholders on the ground rather than relying exclusively on a centrally designed policy framework.
• The EEAS should develop capacities to work on democracy support both at the headquarters and at the delegation level. In doing so, recent
experiences such as the development by the Community of Democracies of the Diplomat’s Handbook for Democracy Development Support should be taken into consideration as reliable and practical mechanisms for structuring capacitybuilding and training mechanisms.
• The EC delegations in relevant countries should have a clear mandate and a framework enabling them to take rapid-response action to support democracy and human rights activists at short notice. They should also include staff dedicated to civil society engagement and support for democracy and human rights, with a strong emphasis on recruiting staff with field work experience in democracy support and civil society development.
• The capacity of civil society has to be nurtured in a more consistent manner at every stage of the policy-making process: improving consultation mechanisms and administrative processes so that relations with civil and political stakeholders are more effective, and furthering the development of independent evaluations of EU policies.
• The EU and its member-states should open to a wider range of policy actors the debate on how to improve the role of democracy support in the EU’s external relations. The Council Conclusions should be discussed with relevant stakeholders in order to generate the necessary conditions for improving the ownership of a policy process that so far has been confined to the selective club of EU member-states.
This policy brief was written as part of the project, Return to Europe – Reflections After 20 Years of Democratic Renewal. The research was undertaken by the following project partners, all of which are PASOS members: the Center for Policy Studies at the Central European University, Hungary, the Institute of Public Affairs (ISP), Poland, and the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), Slovak Republic. The project is being carried out with the support of the Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union, and of the International Visegrad Fund.
PASOS_ISP_EEASLisbontreaty15feb10.pdf (407.10 kB)
