What chances for Democracy Endowment?

EP Press Service | 30.06.2011 | Brussels
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What chances for Democracy Endowment? 

MEPs raised still open questions related to the creation of the European Endowment for Democracy - an initiative of the Polish EU Presidency - during today's joint meeting of the (sub)committees on Foreign Affairs and Human Rights. The questions refer to the added value of this new instrument for democracy promotion and the role of the European Parliament in scrutinising its financing and operations.

"We do not want an inflation of instruments. We have to use the existing ones well and in a consistent manner" said Veronique De Keyser (S&D, BE) during today's discussion with Krysztof Stanowski, undersecretary of state in the Polish Foreign Ministry, who outlined the possible structure and financing of the future Endowment. 

The idea of creating the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), similar to the American model, is mentioned in the review of the Neighbourhood Policy and is meant to financially support nascent democratic organizations and civil society. However, there are already three external financing instruments at EU level which perform similar tasks:

  • Instrument for Stability (IfS) dealing with conflict prevention, crisis management and peace building
  • European Neighbourhood Policy Instrument (ENPI) - financial support to countries participating in the ENP, and
  • European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) - democracy and human rights promotion in third countries.

Financing and structure of EED

As regard the financing of the Endowment, MEPs insisted the the European Parliament should have the necessary budgetary oversight to check how the funds are used. They highlighted that the share of the EU contribution is not clear yet.  According to the Polish proposal, the budget of the EED willl be funded by contributions from the Member States, the EU and other partners. "Will private sector co-financing be allowed?" asked Krzysztof Lisek (EPP, PL).

"If funds from the EIDHR are reduced or transfered to the Endowment, I will not agree. We have more requests for projects to be financed than we can handle", said Barbara Lochbihler (Greens/EFA, DE). She also wanted to know whether the Member States have already made some pledges for the Endowment. 

Commenting on the structure proposed by the Polish Presidency, consisting of a Council and a Commitee of Representatives, Krzysztof Lisek (EPP, PL) proposed that the chairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the Subcommittee of Human Rights should be members of the EED Council.

Concluding the debate, Eduard Kukan (EPP, SK) emphasised that it is necessary to be more flexible in the disbursement of external funds and to respond more rapidly. "If the Endowment for Democracy is to bring an added value, it should not overlap with existing instruments. An option could be that the EED finances short-term actions before the other instruments are activated. The envisaged flexibility should not be to the detriment of accountability of decisions," he said.