Author: Sara Hurtado Meseguer

Turning the Page on 2023: 12 Key Moments for Democracy This Year

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 21/12/2023. Posted in News.

EPD’s Beyond Ballots newsletter has been tracking the most relevant events for democracy every week. As the curtains close on 2023, we have tailored an overview of the key democracy moments of these twelve months for our readers. Looking back with a sense of despair, witnessing our world gradually unravelling like threads in a delicate fabric, we sadly identify a mosaic of challenges and patterns of undemocratic practices.

January – From the US to Brazil: History repeating itself

As historians often say, “By studying history, we strive to prevent the mistakes of the past.” However, the assault on Brazil’s Congress premises by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro, on the second anniversary of Donald Trump supporters storming the US Capitol, proves that there are still many lessons to be learned. To prevent history from repeating itself a third time, Brazil’s Federal Electoral Court (TSE) has voted to prohibit Bolsonaro from holding office until 2030, due to his anti-democratic abuse of power and his role in the protests contesting his election defeat.

February – India’s attack on the freedom of speech

During the shortest month of the year, the BBC offices in India were raided by tax department officials for alleged violations of foreign exchange rules, weeks after the release of a documentary highlighting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leading role during the Gujarat riots in 2002, where more than 1,000 Muslims were killed. With no hesitation in exposing the country’s lack of freedom of expression and right to information, the Delhi High Court is actively seeking to sue the BBC on grounds of defamation. Coincidentally or not, later in April, all 67 accused in the Gujarat riots Naroda village massacre case were acquitted.

March – Second Summit for Democracy

In contrast to its inaugural edition in 2021, constrained by COVID-19 travel restrictions, the second Summit for Democracy on March 29th and 30th transcended borders, unfolding across the globe. Co-hosted by the USA, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of Zambia, many believe the second #S4D lacked a clear purpose as it failed to offer a platform for reviewing and sharing the progress made on the commitments during the “year of action”. Alongside fostering more citizen engagement, the following improvements were identified during EPD’s 2023 Annual Conference ahead of the upcoming edition in South Korea.

April – Fleeing Sudan: A need, not a choice

On 15 April 2023, a violent power struggle erupted in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, between the two main factions of the ruling military regime: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). To date, over 3,000 people have been killed and 6,000 others have been injured, as reported by the country’s health minister, Haitham Ibrahim. The conflict has led to the internal displacement of more than 1.9 million people, with an additional 550,000 crossing into neighbouring countries, according to the Displacement Tracking Matrix of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

May – Unfair play in Turkey’s elections

“The entire nation of 85 million won,” claimed Recep Tayyip Erdogan while celebrating his re-election in May, despite garnering the support of only half (52%) of the electorate. This election not only provided the opposition, led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, with its greatest opportunity yet to remove Erdogan from power but also offered Europe a significant opportunity to restore a relationship based on mutual trust with Turkey. However, the uneven playing field tilted the scales. The crackdown on dissent, the control and manipulation of social media, along with the biased coverage of Erdogan’s speeches (state TV provided him with 32 hours and 42 minutes of airtime, while Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu received only 32 minutes during the campaign’s peak), as documented by OSCE elections observation missions, demonstrates that although Erdogan may have won Turkey, Turkey has lost democracy.

June – Wagner’s failed coup attempt fallout

On 24 June, we woke up with a plot twist: Wagner boss Prigozhin ordered his troops to march towards Moscow, seeking revenge against Russia’s military leadership in Ukraine, only to order a retreat less than 24 hours later to avoid “bloodshed”. Wagner’s “heroic” domestic image played to their advantage as Putin had no alternative but to allow Wagner’s mutiny commanders to peacefully depart to Belarus, catalogued by many as a “weak move”, leaving the Russian President with no choice but to follow-up in one of two ways: either getting Prigozhin on his side or getting rid of him. Not long after US President Joe Biden stated “If I were him, I’d be careful what I ate”, the Wagner leader suspiciously died in a plane crash on 23 August.

July – Farewell to the ‘guillotine’ in Malaysia?

Great expectations had been pinned on an annual decrease in the recorded execution count in Malaysia. Although the death penalty is still legal, the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 lays the groundwork for substituting the mandatory death sentence of 12 offences with prison terms ranging from 30 to 40 years, in addition to 12 whipping strokes. This raised concerns among human rights organisations. While the country embarks on reviewing over 1,000 sentences, some of which have already received fairer judgments, and while compliance with international law springs up, a question arises: is this ‘‘a step towards global abolition or a pipe dream?’’

August: Guatemala’s modern way to subvert democracy

”People never go to the streets to celebrate political wins. It’s not in their hearts. But here, they were doing it”, explains ‘outsider’ Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arevalo in an interview with journalist Eyder Peralta while recalling the shared joy about his unexpected election in August. But almost immediately, that moment was followed by attempts to keep Arevalo from taking office. Arevalo openly described the suspension of his party ”Movimiento Semilla” (for alleged wrongdoing in the gathering of signatures to register his party), as a ‘slow motion coup’, ”in which the justice apparatus is used to violate justice itself”. Only one month before his anticipated assumption of office on 14 January 2024, he faces a new challenge as public prosecutors threaten to annul his victory, raising all the alarms about the democratic process and leaving Guatemalans on tenterhooks waiting to see whether their will shall be respected.

September: Interstate turbulences in Eastern Europe

The advent of the new academic year brought with it an unfavourable weather forecast for Eastern Europe, where clashes and tensions began to pour down. On 19 September, following a 9-month blockade drenching the Nagorno-Karabakh region into starvation and a lack of vital life-support supplies, Azerbaijan launched a three-day attack asserting it was ‘‘necessary to restore order’’, forcing 120,000 Armenians to flee their homes through the ironically dubbed ‘Road of Life’. However, a final boarding call sounded for the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh on 28 September 2023 as its president signed a decree to dissolve all institutions by 1 January 2024. Concurrently, a Kosovo-Serbian storm of violence also awakened, marking one of the most violent episodes since 1999 when a Serb paramilitary group ambushed a Kosovan police patrol. A hopeful wish emerges for the new year: washing away the clouds of discord across the European continent.

October: Beyond self-defence

Claiming the right to self-defence, following the massacre of 695 people committed by Hamas on 7 October, Israel has persistently bombarded Gaza through a bombing campaign and a ground offensive since. As of 21 December 2023, at least 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, around 70% of whom were women and children; 52,000 others have been injured; 1,000 children are believed to have lost their limbs; entire families have been wiped out and thousands more are still under the rubble or unidentifiable. The international community’s reluctance to take a clear stance on the conflict led to a severe delay in calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire before the UN General Assembly, backed by a majority of 153 votes, adopted a resolution on 12 December 2023. However, Israel claims that it will continue the war with or without the international community, further deepening tensions in the region.

November: Uncharted far-right waters across the globe

Picture this: the first speech of a newly elected president, standing at the epicentre of a sea of eyes anticipating the usual chants of promises and optimism. After all, isn’t a better future that people envision one of the biggest motives to ‘‘waste’’ the only resting day of the week to cast their vote? Shattering all expectations and scripts during his first address, Argentinian President Javier Milei, nicknamed the ‘‘madman’’, claimed that “there is no alternative to a shock adjustment” with inflation heading towards 200%, underscoring the harsh reality that ‘‘there is no money’’. While Milei represents Argentina’s first libertarian president, the month of November also brought a rise of the far-right in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders and his PVV Freedom Party won the elections with 37 out of 150 seats in the Dutch parliament by wielding anti-EU rhetoric and advocating restrictions on what he described as an ‘‘asylum tsunami’’. However, as of today, 21 December, no coalition has yet been reached. With their slogans ‘Make Argentina great again’ and ‘The Netherlands for the Dutch people,’ we find ourselves wondering: is the tide of far-right populism contagious?

December: Africa’s coup chessboard

What did Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, and Sierra Leone all have in common in 2023? A worrying trend of chessboard-like coups. In December, violence between members of the national guard and special forces, described as an attempted coup d’état, led to Guinea Bissau’s President Sissoco Embalo making a strategic move to protect the democratic elected government by dissolving the parliament. Similar actions played out in Sierra Leone in November, as attacks on Sierra Leone’s military facilities and prisons were deemed an “attempted coup”. In August, shortly after Gabon’s President Ali Bongo’s re-election for a third term, military and police officers joined forces executing a widely backed coup, removing Bongo from the board, and check-mating a 56-year political dynasty. In July, in a fork move to justify overthrowing the government and placing Nigerien President Bazoum under house arrest (until today), the self-proclaimed de facto leader of the military junta General Abdourahamane Tchiani insisted on a TV address that he was saving the country from ‘the gradual and inevitable demise’. The domino effect of strategic moves leads us to wonder whether democracy has failed the continent.

2023 has been a rollercoaster of events, yet the prevailing sentiment leans towards fear rather than security (a reality that continues to resonate year after year as we write these recaps). Looking forward to next year, it already appears that this newsletter will Be(y)on(d) Ballots due to the record number of elections in 2024, which EPD will be closely monitoring.

Open letter to Members of the European Parliament Calling for the Absolute Prohibition of Spyware Against Journalists

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 27/09/2023. Posted in Information space.

Journalism in Europe is under threat. Surveillance and other intimidation tactics are limiting journalistic reporting and restricting the public’s access to a plurality of trustworthy and independent reporting. The PEGA Committee (Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware) demonstrated how Member States have bypassed established legal safeguards to put journalists under intrusive surveillance. Current legal protections are de facto completely ineffective.

On 2 October, the EU Parliament will vote on the draft report on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). This regulation will in part create the first European legal framework to protect journalists and media service providers from intrusive surveillance technologies. Media, journalists and human and digital rights organisations are calling for an unconditional prohibition of the use of spyware against journalists in Article 4.

Read Open Letter here

What is still missing from the European Media Freedom Act

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 30/08/2023. Posted in Information space.

Over the past few months, the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) proposal has been frequently discussed in both the European Parliament and the Council. Just before the August hiatus, the Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), the Committee for opinion, took its vote while the lead Rapporteur Sabine Verheyen (EPP) and the Shadow Rapporteurs agreed on general compromise amendments. These discussions will now resume and even intensify as the lead Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) will vote on its report in early September with the plenary vote scheduled for October. With this article, the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) provides an overview of the proposal as it stands ahead of these negotiations and sheds light on some of the obstacles that still need to be overcome.

Protection of journalists

Article 4 of the EMFA, which includes the majority of provisions aimed at safeguarding the independence and the protection of journalists, has been a sticking point lately. This is due to the fact that within the Council’s final mandate for negotiations with the Parliament, the list of crimes for which surveillance can be deployed was increased, and an exemption from the protection of journalists from spyware was added.This carve out would allow Member States to spy on journalists if this was deemed necessary in the name of protecting national security. EPD and 79 other organisations argued against this move, stressing that these changes will legalise the use of spyware against journalists instead of protecting them.

Ahead of the vote in LIBE, we again supported the call of 36 organisations to include robust safeguards for journalists and a complete ban of the use of spyware against them. Unfortunately, while the LIBE opinion improves the protection of journalists, it did not opt for a total ban of spyware. As the use of spyware (Article 4.2) falls under the exclusive competence of LIBE, the CULT Committee must include this part of LIBE’s opinion in its final report. EPD will continue advocating for strengthened safeguards for journalists ahead of the vote in plenary.

Media ownership

While the EMFA provides an obligation for the information on media ownership to be made public, EPD has argued from the beginning that the proposed requirements are not sufficient to truly shed light on the tangled webs of media ownership. While the Council has improved Article 6.1 by extending its scope to all media service providers, not only those providing “news and current affairs content”, it has not required that more information be made available. In this respect, the LIBE opinion was more far-reaching because it mandates several additional types of information to be made public by media service providers, including data concerning the ownership structure related to the media service provider’s parent and sister companies. It also restricts the beneficial ownership of media for persons holding certain prominent public functions, such as heads of State or ministers, which would help ensure politicians do not exercise undue influence over media.

EPD urges the CULT Committee to introduce rules on the transparency of media ownership, including the report into an EU-wide media ownership database, that will provide meaningful change and allow civic watchdogs to continue to do their work.

The role of the European Board for Media Services (the Board)

While the majority of lawmakers agree that the European Board for Media Services (the Board) must be independent from the Commission, less consensus can be found on how to achieve this and where to draw the line. If the Board will be fully independent from the Commission, its actions and decisions will be influenced solely by the Board’s members who come from national regulatory authorities. This might prove problematic, especially in instances where the Board is asked to provide expertise on guidelines, such as on the prominence of media services of general interest, which would necessarily include providing a definition of such media services. EPD believes that decisions on these issues should be left to elected lawmakers.

Furthermore, the opinion of the LIBE Committee envisions a Non-Audiovisual Media Expert Group to act as an advisory body to the Board. The Expert Group would be filled with experts according to procedures and requirements laid down in the Board Rules of Procedure, which is proposed to be adopted by the Board (composed of national regulatory authorities) after a non-binding consultation with the Commission. While in theory this would enable independent voices familiar with the sector to provide guidance to the Board, the process of choosing the members of this Expert Group must be duly clarified to avoid the possibility of national authorities nominating “experts” with a political agenda.

‘Media privilege’

The much discussed Article 17 aims to introduce a system in which media that declare themselves as such would benefit from certain privileges on very large online platforms (VLOPs), such as providing a statement of reasons prior to a suspension of media’s content taking effect. As EPD stressed before, instead of restricting the VLOPs’ influence over media content on their platforms, the text only gives the VLOPs more power. The structural dependency of media on VLOPs is indeed a problematic phenomenon, but the solution offered in the Commission’s proposal will not solve it and the Council’s final text only exacerbates the problem.

According to the Council’s mandate for negotiations with the Parliament, the ‘media privilege’ would not only apply to the suspension of content but also to the restriction of its visibility. As a response to criticism about potential rogue actors taking advantage of the system, the Council proposed more information on independence and compliance with legal requirements to be provided by the media during their self-declaration. However, this model still creates an inequality of freedom of speech, does not deal with the problematic question of who would be in charge of controlling these self-declarations, and threatens to fragment the horizontal rules introduced by the Digital Services Act (DSA).

In the upcoming debates, EPD will therefore continue to strive for Article 17 to be deleted and this harmful model removed.

Transparency of state advertising

One of the most discussed issues with the EMFA provisions on state advertising was the exemption from transparency requirements for territorial entities of less than 1 million inhabitants. Thankfully, this threshold was lowered by the Council and later even removed altogether by the LIBE Committee. The Committee also suggested amendments to the provisions on emergency messages that would ensure that state authorities cannot deliberately evade transparency by using emergencies as a pretext.

However, further issues remain. In order for meaningful transparency to be achieved, we have called for the monitoring of state aid provision to media service providers, shorter frequency of data publication, and the introduction of national registers of media ownership . Additionally, an EU-wide database of information on state advertising would be of a great benefit as it would provide the public, journalists and civil society with cohesive and centralised data.

The above-mentioned topics are of the utmost importance in the fight for an effective European Media Freedom Act. The entire regulation, including its provisions on media concentrations and public service media, will have a tremendous impact on the media market in the Union. This is why EPD will continue to advocate for a strong EMFA which can improve media freedom and pluralism across Europe.

Enhancing the integrity of the 2024 European Parliament elections

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 28/08/2023. Posted in Institutions.

Together with Election-Watch.EU (EW), Democracy Reporting International (DRI), and the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), as part of our SEEEDS project, which aims to assist European and Member State decision-makers in safeguarding trust and improving the integrity of the 2024 European Parliament elections, we have released a policy paper. This paper delves into the findings and recommendations result of our four thematic webinars and a high-level event held on July 4th on strategies to enhance electoral integrity in anticipation of the forthcoming European elections (see summary report below).

Our findings

Equality and inclusion

In addition to the pressing need for legislative reforms to ensure European electoral cohesion and avoid 27 diverse legal frameworks, engaging mobile EU citizens, persons with disabilities, and women in elections is also a substantial challenge.

Transparency

As online news platforms are becoming increasingly the first source of news among EU citizens, EU institutions are in the process of regulating political advertising. However, to date, political advertising online is only regulated on the basis of the voluntary self-regulatory commitment of major platforms.

Accountability

There are discrepancies between EU-level rules and national regulations with regards to the financing and accountability of EP elections while existing EU and EUMS regulations on party and campaign finance do not respond to the needs of the EU as a community of shared values.

Risks and opportunities

The digitalisation of political campaigns, external anti-democratic interference, rule of law erosion in certain Member States, along with disinformation and hate speech, stand as key 2024 EU elections risks. Conversely, the COVID pandemic, EU recovery funds, support for Ukraine, and lead candidates’ roles could sustain the rising voter turnout trend from the 2019 EP elections.

Our recommendations

What can be done to address the issues mentioned above? You can find our recommendations on equality and inclusion, transparency, accountability, as well as the risks and opportunities leading up to the 2024 EU elections in the policy paper below.

Read policy paper here

Summary report high-level event 4th July

The project is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

How to implement the DSA so that the Political Advertising Regulation works in practice?

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 08/08/2023. Posted in Information space.

The success of any attempt to regulate political advertising in the online domain must be underpinned by a well-designed and well-functioning system of identifying political advertisements. However, Articles 5 and 9 of the proposed Regulation on the Targeting and Transparency of Political Advertising (TTPA) place more emphasis on the role of the sponsor and imposes limited obligations on online platforms and other advertising service providers to conduct identification checks for ads that are political but have not been previously declared as such by their sponsor. This would allow malign actors to circumvent the transparency obligations set out by simply not indicating that the ads they are running are political.

This, in turn, renders the entire TTPA ineffective, as only sponsors playing by the rules are effectively subjected to the obligations under the Regulation. In this context, the Digital Services Act (DSA) can play a crucial role. The TTPA will only be fit for purpose through the implementation of the DSA’s provisions on VLOPs and VLOSEs, mainly Article 35 on adequate risk mitigation measures.

Read paper here

Democracy in Review: First Half of 2023

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 18/07/2023. Posted in International policy.

January – From the US to Brazil: History repeating itself

February – India’s attack on all means of freedom

March – Second Summit for Democracy

In contrast to its inaugural edition in 2021, constrained by COVID-19 travel restrictions, the second Summit for Democracy on March 29th and 30th transcended borders, unfolding across the globe. Co-hosted by the USA, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of Zambia, many believe the second #S4D lacked a clear purpose as it failed to offer a platform and monitoring mechanisms for reviewing and sharing the progress made on the commitments during the “year of action”. Alongside fostering more citizen engagement and better defining the role of European governments, these improvements were identified during EPD’s 2023 Annual Conference ahead of the upcoming edition in South Korea.

April – Fleeing Sudan: A need, not a choice

On April 15, a violent power struggle erupted in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, between the two main factions of the ruling military regime: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). To date, over 3,000 people have been killed and 6,000 others have been injured, as reported by the country’s health minister, Haitham Ibrahim. These figures explain the internal displacement of more than 1.9 million people, with an additional 550,000 crossing into neighbouring countries, according to the Displacement Tracking Matrix of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

May – Unfair play in Turkey’s elections

“The entire nation of 85 million won,” claimed Recep Tayyip Erdogan while celebrating his re-election in May, despite garnering the support of only half (52%) of the electorate. This election not only provided the opposition, led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, with its greatest opportunity yet to remove Erdogan from power but also offered Europe a significant opportunity to restore a relationship based on mutual trust with Turkey. However, the uneven playing field tilted the scales. The crackdown on dissent, the control and manipulation of social media, along with the biased coverage of Erdogan’s speeches (state TV provided him with 32 hours and 42 minutes of airtime, while Kemal received only 32 minutes during the campaign’s peak), as documented by OSCE elections observation missions, demonstrates that although Erdogan may have won Turkey, Turkey has lost democracy.

June – Wagner’s failed coup attempt fallout

On June 24th, we woke up with a plot twist: Wagner boss Prigozhin ordered his troops to march towards Moscow, seeking revenge against Russia’s military leadership in Ukraine, only to order their retreat less than 24 hours later to avoid “bloodshed”. Wagner’s “heroic” domestic image played to their advantage as Putin had no alternative but to allow Wagner’s mutiny commanders to peacefully depart to Belarus, catalogued by many as a “weak move”, leaving Putin with no choice but to follow-up on two action points: Shutting down Prigozhin’s business empire and communication channels while gaining control of its troll farms and restoring his image and legitimacy by either escalating the war in Ukraine to secure his victory or, if lost, retaliating against the West for its support to Ukraine. In an attempt to shift the plot to Russia’s advantage, Putin extended an invitation to Prigozhin to return to Russia for a meeting on June 29th. During their encounter, the Russian President offered the leader of the Wagner mercenary group with the chance to join the Russian army alongside their fighters to continue their fight in Ukraine. Following Prigozhin’s refusal of the offer, claiming that ”Wagner does not exist,” US President Joe Biden stated, ”If I were he, I’d be careful what I ate.” However, as said by EPD’s President during EPD’s 2023 Annual Conference, had Russia been a democracy, none of this would have happened.

Call on the European Union to Secure an Effective Media Freedom Act

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 10/07/2023. Posted in Information space.

After years of inaction, we congratulate the European Commission for introducing the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) and now call on the European Parliament and the European Council to negotiate a final version that can meet its ambitions.

Joined by media freedom, journalists, and human rights organisations across Europe, we strongly urge the European institutions to ensure that the EMFA is not watered down by the concerns raised by publisher groups regarding certain provisions of the proposed legislation. Therefore, we insist that:

Transparency of media ownership is a legitimate and essential public interest.
Editorial independence is crucial to safeguard the integrity of news content from interference and vested interests, including those of owners.
The role of the proposed European Board of Media Services is focused on protecting media pluralism and editorial independence, not on regulating media content.
Solving the economic imbalance faced by publishers in the digital market requires digital market reforms, not unlimited consolidation of news content providers.
Governments misusing state advertising should be stopped and media regulators captured.

We believe these measures DO NOT pose a threat to media freedom in the EU. Therefore, with European elections on the horizon there is no excuse for complacency, nor delay. We urge European policymakers to pass a strong EMFA this year.

Read paper here

The Community is growing: DD Foundation joins the European Partnership for Democracy

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 05/07/2023. Posted in Institutions.

In June 2023, the Domus Dorpatensis Foundation for Science and Liberal Arts (DD Foundation) joined the EPD network becoming our 19th member. The DD Foundation is based in Tartu, Estonia and they have been proactively working to build institutions enabling democracy since 2002. Their three main centers of activities are their DD Academy program for students, the DD StratLab consultancy service for organisations and the institutional development work within the DD Center for Developing Democracy.

“We firmly believe that in order to develop democracy anywhere, it’s necessary to understand how it’s developing everywhere else. That’s why we’re happy to now be a part of this family of organisations partaking in a collective effort of imagining and developing better democracies.”

Martin A. Noorkõiv, CEO and Chairman of the DD Foundation

Author: Karl Erik Piirimees

The DD Academy spreads their learning programmes around the world and trains talented young people on the systematic approach to societal development, by giving them the tools to understand democratic societies’ challenges and find good solutions to solving them.

Through their DD StratLab, they put into practice what they teach within the Academy and offer strategic consultancy to organisations to better link their goals and strategies to implementation, as well as training on leadership.

And finally, their DD Center for Developing Democracy has been founded to ensure that democratic institutions continue to adapt to changes in our environment and that democracy continues to be the best solution in light of all the new and complex global challenges. Through this center, they support scientists working on the link between societal changes and democratic institutions by facilitating discussions and implementing projects that innovate democratic institutions.

EPD proudly welcomes DD Foundation on board!

Welcome to EPD’s new President Thijs Berman

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 05/07/2023. Posted in Institutions.

Thijs Berman, Executive Director of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), was unanimously elected as the new President of EPD on June 19, 2023, for a two-year term.

Thijs Berman has over 30 years of experience in media, politics, and international development. He began his career as a journalist, working as a radio correspondent in Paris and Moscow for several prominent Dutch radio stations, television channels, and print publications. He then served as a Member of the European Parliament from July 2004 until July 2014, where he headed several European election observation missions. Thijs joined NIMD as Executive Director in January 2019.

‘‘You have to see democracy as a strategic asset, like energy or water’’, said Thijs during the EPD 2023 Conference. For the new EPD President, ‘‘the main problems are not the autocrats, but ‘democrats’ not being democratic’’. He believes that ‘‘autocrats get elected and even coups d’etats get support in some countries because voters in many countries become disappointed about their democratic leaders when they choose to serve their own interests better than those of their people’’.

While lamenting the paradox of seeing EPD grow due to the increasing attacks on democracy, Thijs argues that ‘‘after 15 years, EPD has become the main interlocutor of the European Institutions regarding democracy support’’. However, he not only has a strong stance towards resilient but inclusive democracies, as he explains that together ‘‘with EPD, we’ll continue to facilitate the dialogue and help young democratic leaders make democracy work for all’’.

Upon assuming the new position of EPD President, Thijs congratulated the outgoing President, Antonella Valmorbida, ALDA’s Secretary General. “They were six intense years of challenges and achievement’’, said Antonella, where the surging tides of populism, the exponential spread of disinformation, the menacing threats to press freedom and freedom of expression, and the disheartening trend of democratic backsliding have only confirmed the importance of working together for democracy support. As Anthony Smith, Chief Executive of the Westminster Foundation and EPD Treasurer, said during EPD’s 2023 Conference: ‘‘It is no coincidence that her mandate coincided with the growth of the network’’ – which included an increase in members, projects and staff.

Photo © Daphne Matthys

Welcome Thijs and thank you Antonella!

Exploring a new dawn in democracy – EPD’s 2023 Annual Conference

Written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer on 29/06/2023. Posted in Institutions.

150 participants from various walks of life, 36 renowned speakers, and 10 thought-provoking sessions revolving around support for democracy at EPD’s 2023 Annual Conference (see aftermovie and photos below). Despite several worrying trends, our conference underlined that ‘‘there are reasons to be sceptical of the fully pessimistic narrative’’ but, are we entering a new dawn for democratic inclusion and resilience?

Session 1 | From Russia with Lessons: Democratic Values as a Key Foreign Policy Interest

Democracy is vital for security; had Russia been a democracy, the war in Ukraine could have been avoided. There is a clear need for European actors to better reflect the importance of democratic governance for national security. This also extends beyond security and involves understanding that democratic politics needs to become a much higher order priority for European foreign policy.

Session 2 | Knocking on the EU’s door: Fundamentals first, or geostrategic investment?

Enlargement negotiations are a leverage for reforms, but these depend on how the country commits itself to them. Approaching accession in a fundamentalist way is vital to European democracy. However, if we consider not only democracy as vital for security, but also security as vital for democracy, it is possible that geopolitical considerations find a more prominent place in the new enlargement agenda.

Session 3 | Big budgets in the grey zone

The EU must tailor its democracy support to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of each country, as understanding the local reality is crucial for effective engagement. While it is important to protect and promote democracy everywhere, we should also ask ourselves: are there countries that can do more for democracy with European financial support?

Session 4 | Beyond tokenism: addressing the challenge of diversity in democracy

Meaningful participation of marginalised groups can only be achieved by working on political stakeholders, developing positive discrimination procedures to push inclusive and diverse representation from political parties to parliaments and institutions. It is also fundamental to work with educational institutions and systems, making sure that social barriers can be overcome through a more empowering and open-minded education of citizens.

Session 5 | Understanding the Defense of Democracy Package

‘‘The Defence of Democracy Package has been postponed, to buy us some more time to work on a proportionate and reasonable proposal’’, said Věra Jourová, European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency.

Session 6 | S4D3: What role for European actors and is it worth it?

Despite the #S4D being a great initiative, the past edition lacked a clear purpose as it failed to provide the space to share improvements in the commitments during the ‘year of action’, partly due to the lack of monitoring mechanisms. Not only should this be improved for the next edition, but European actors should seek to build a coalition of diverse actors and foster more citizen engagement.

Session 7 | Show me the money: new democracy aid data

Policy-makers and practitioners lack precise data on democracy support spending. The European Democracy Hub presented new research data that helps fill this gap that will soon be completed by an online tool making the data accessible to the wider public. However, numbers will need to be combined with a genuine quality analysis to support future democracy support strategies.

Session 8 | A better digital world in 2030

To democratise the digital sphere over the next few years, there is an urgent need to regulate the behaviour of different actors, not only the platforms themselves. Challenges remain regarding democratising the digital sphere at different yet interrelated levels, including the inclusion of different communities in decision-making processes, ensuring that digital policy is responsive to societal demands and that digital policies protect the exercise of fundamental rights as preconditions of democracy.

Session 9 | New initiatives for democratic participation in Europe

‘‘Citizens are the most important asset, there is no democracy without citizens.’’, said Dubravka Šuica, European Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography. For the EU to engage better with its citizens, there is a need to move outside the ‘’Brussels bubble’’ and build horizontal and reciprocal communicative interactions, especially at a local level, as every EU citizen should be knowledgeable of the avenues for shaping the EU’s agenda.

Session 10 | The EU and Democracy worldwide

‘‘Our own ability to be effective in talking with third countries on Human Rights issues and to be credible also depends on what we do at home.’’, says Eamon Gilmore, EU’s Special Representative for Human Rights. When it comes to human rights, the EU is clearly seen as a vital actor on the international stage but there is much work to be done at a time of serious threats to human rights, democracy and the rule of law across the world.

If one conclusion was to be drawn from our event, bringing together experts, policy-makers, civil society and academia, it is that the key to strengthening democracies lies in working together.

A special thank you to everyone of you who joined us – see if you feature in the pictures and aftermovie below – and made the 20th of June 2023 a memorable day for democracy.

This article was written by Sara Hurtado Meseguer, Communication Assistant at the European Partnership for Democracy.

Aftermovie and pictures