Summit for Democracy Year of Action Dialogue

On 13 December 2022, the International Idea and the European Commission organised in Brussels a hybrid event entitled the ‘Summit for Democracy Year of Action Dialogue: Beyond the Summit for Democracy, opportunities and the way forward’.

The first Summit for Democracy (S4D), held in December of 2021, brought together leaders from government, civil society and the private sector to set out an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal. Between the first and second S4D, the ‘Year of Action’ is an opportunity for governments to begin to implement their commitments to democracy made during the first Summit, with the help of civil society organisations (CSOs) and democracy support organisations.

The goal of the Dialogue was to clarify the opportunities created by the S4D process beyond its timeline, to identify good practices and to assess the added value of democracy cohorts in a concerted action towards commitment implementation. It also explored the role that EU Member States can play through various bilateral initiatives to further strengthen democratic processes.

The event was opened by Sam Van der Staak, Head of Regional Europe Programme, International Idea, and by Chiara Adamo, Acting Director, Human Development, Migration, Governance and Peace at DG INTPA. Adamo reflected about some important achievements of the S4D process: “We have joined efforts with EU Member States to support democracy, increased transparency and information on this topic and engaged many Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), also from the Global South”.

The first panel ‘Embracing the opportunities of the S4D process’ was moderated by Olena Gordiienko, Senior Policy Advisor of the Team Europe Democracy (TED) Secretariat. Gordiienko mentioned that the TED initiative was launched by the European Commission and EU Member States concomitantly with and in the same spirit of the S4D, with the goal to promote and strengthen democracy globally.

During the discussions, the panellists highlighted that the S4D provides a unique international forum to promote democracy in a very challenging time and that a strong involvement of CSOs is essential for its success. CSOs believe that, so far, they have not been involved enough. Furthermore, it is extremely important to engage with non-like-minded countries through a “country approach”, instead of a “government approach”.

The participants of the event also looked at ways of ensuring the continuity of democracy actions beyond the S4D.  Cecilia Ruthström-Ruin, Ambassador for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasized that democracy support in the world and defence of human rights will be among the EU’s presidency priorities of Sweden in 2023.

The last panel showed that the cohorts were strongly driven by CSOs and achieved a lot in the last three months. Their members issued joint declarations, organised events and capacity building activities and prepared several publications. One important lesson was that the cohorts need to learn from each other and keep cooperating closely in the future.

The event ended with a brief recapitulation of the good practices and lessons learnt, during which Marilyn Neven, project manager of International Idea, emphasized that the Team Europe Democracy can contribute to take further some of the initiatives and recommendations made during the S4D.