The European Partnership for Democracy calls on the European Commission to invest in democracy in the corona-budget they are set to publish on 28 April. The network of 15 leading democratic organisations sent a letter to Vice President Borrell,Vice President Jourova, Commissioner Urpilainen and Commissioner Reynders, asking them to prioritise democratic governance in the new proposal for the EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
The alliance argues that democracy and multilateralism are at risk globally, citing Chinese assertiveness and Hungary’s soft coup. “Crises tend to accelerate and deepen existing trends, and this will most certainly be the case for the growing trend of authoritarianism if the EU does not act decisively,” the letter reads.
The new proposal for a corona-MFF will need to reflect the importance of the EU’s founding values and guiding principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Now more than ever, people are looking to the EU to take up this leadership role needed for a democratic post-corona era.
18 months ago, EPD embarked on a review of European support for democracy. This has included several stand-alone papers on democracy support and numerous multi-stakeholder meetings with academics, activists, civil society, donors, experts, policy-makers and think tanks.
The review has ultimately culminated in a report looking at what European democracy support has achieved (the past), what can be improved today (the present) and where democracy support should be headed (the future).
It also includes 5 final recommendations on the next steps to take in order to improve and consolidate European support for democracy.
In the last decade, Zimbabwe went from an extremely violent election to a (first) coalition government, to an adjusting authoritarian regime characterised by intense factional battles and continued economic hardships, to a coup that led to the historical departure of President Mugabe after his 37-year rule. Despite the occurrence of these major developments, Zimbabwe’s government has to a large extent been characterised by an authoritarian leadership style.
This study on European democracy support in Zimbabwe is part of a wider assessment of European democracy support in the past decade. Analysing European democracy support programmes in Zimbabwe allows for an exploration of possible strategies to use when dealing with authoritarian regimes. In doing so, this paper explores the continued balancing act of European actors in their engagement with Zimbabwe, and the implications for European democracy support programmes. This is especially relevant as there have been a number of significant shifts in European engagement with Zimbabwe in the past decade.
In order to assess European democracy support it is important to highlight the political and socio-economic context in Zimbabwe, which has influenced the nature, volume and priorities of European support programmes. The first section will therefore list a number of key democracy-related events and turning points of the past decade. The paper then looks at the relevance, complementarity, consistency and impact of European democracy support in separate chapters. It ends by offering up conclusions and recommendations for the future of European efforts to support democratic governance in Zimbabwe.
The European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) was created in 2008 by EU member states and not-for-profit organisations keen to solidify European support for democracy abroad. Yet much has changed since the late 2000s both in terms of the policy environment inside Europe and the changing nature of political systems around the world. As a result, EPD and its members are conducting a participatory review of European democracy support over the course of 2018-2019.
The research is designed to take stock of European democracy support by focusing on the policies of practitioner organisations, the European Union and European governments in order to draw lessons for the future. This paper forms part of a series of research papers by EPD that informs this review process.
Earlier this month, The European Partnership for Democracy and Media4Democracy have completed the work based on the identification of ways to strengthen freedom of expression and independent media in Kyrgyzstan, the most liberal country in Central Asia with media pluralism and freedom.
As of November 2018, the Expert Team has conducted a first field visit to map the media sector through a political economy approach and provide recommendations to the EU Delegation to the Kyrgyz Republic.
Read the full report published by Media4Democracy here.
About the project
This project aims to ensure that issues of freedom of expression, right to information and free media are incorporated in the EU Democracy Action Plan and the Human Rights and Democracy Country Strategies and are implemented as part of EU democracy support.
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