The report contains the findings of an initiative by Stockholm-based International IDEA to analyse the EU’s role in democracy building and draw up a more coherent approach to its democracy building support. A key part of the Swedish-sponsored project was to gather information about how the European Union is perceived by its partners in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, South and South-East Asia and the Arab world. This found that although the EU is seen as a source of inspiration and a good partner to work with, it is not always consistent within itself. The IDEA team has produced, in consultation with partners in the five regions, a set of policy recommendations that aim to address that discrepancy.
“This report presents the first ever peer review of the European Union’s external policies and practices on support for democracy and democracy building around the world”, says International IDEA’s Secretary-General Vidar Helgesen. “We organized this process of multi-regional consultations in response to some monumental failures in the name of international democracy promotion in recent years – such as efforts to impose democratic solutions from the outside and a refusal to accept democratic outcomes from within”.
Democracy building will be one of the Swedish government’s three main priorities during its tenure of the presidency. Building on Sweden’s historic commitment to democracy, International IDEA will help the Government raise the democratic profile of the EU’s development agenda. This will be achieved by addressing four key messages that came out of the consultation and turning them into practical suggestions for policy development.
The messages are that:
- democracy is not just about elections, but how political systems allow citizens to meet their basic needs;
- the EU needs to articulate its own experience and create a common long-term vision for democracy;
- this must hold firm through all its actions, especially when the going gets tough; and
- partnership and dialogue is key to the future, and improved democracy will benefit both the EU and its partners.
During its examination of the EU’s democracy support processes International IDEA identified a number of gaps between the way the EU sees itself and how it is regarded by its global partners. The EU’s stated intentions towards democracy building are not always reflected in the way its policies and actions are viewed by others. The EU needs to deepen its understanding of how its policies on issues such as migration, trade, security and agriculture affect its partners’ own democracy building efforts.
As Dr Annie Chikwanha, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Security Studies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and a member of International IDEA’s Board commented, “I think a lot of the issues lie within the EU itself, looking at itself and really taking stock of its achievements and its approaches and just reviewing them, consulting more.”
In the eyes of its global partners, the EU’s agendas seem to be competing with, rather than complementing each other, as it puts short-term security above the longer-term imperatives of democracy. Some individual Members States appear to be operating policies that are incompatible with the EU’s joint strategies; and external partners feel their relationships with the Union do not go deep enough – democratic principles can become blurred when the EU deals with others.
The consultation considers a number of recommendations to help plug the perceived gap between EU policy and practice in its dealings with the outside world. At the heart of the proposal is the idea that the EU should use its own experiences to inform its support for democracy building in partner regions. The partners see EU as an appealing partner because of its successes within the fields of democracy building, economic development, social cohesion and regional integration. The EU should start by looking at itself, and reviewing how it could import a greater sense of democracy into some of its own policies. It might consider increasing its transparency and dialogue and broaden the external communication strategies on its own experiences. This should incorporate a way of working that contributes to a long-term commitment to democracy building, rather than seeing democracy as an impediment to other agendas.
The report says the importance of the partnership approach must be infused into all levels of the EU, in a culture of internal dialogue as well as inclusive consultation with partners elsewhere. In those relationships the EU should explore avenues that yield mutual benefits for all partners so everyone gains from the exchange. The findings and recommendations will form the basis of a wholesale reassessment of the working of democracy within the EU.
Download the Complete Report (PDF, 42 pages, 772 KB)
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