Ten years of European Parliament's democracy support

On 29-30 November 2022, European Parliament’s Members and key stakeholders across the democracy support community gathered at a high-level event entitled ‘Supporting Parliamentary Democracy Worldwide: Building democratic resilience’ organised by the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group in the European Parliament in Brussels.



The conference, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of European Parliament's democracy support activities, was opened by President Roberta Metsola and brought together a number of high-level speakers and members of the European Commission and the European Parliament, as well as representatives of the beneficiary parliaments from non-EU countries, Sakharov Prize laureates, human rights defenders and experts in democracy support.

During the opening session President Roberta Metsola emphasised the importance of parliaments as “the backbones of democracy” and remembered the achievements of the European Parliament in the field of democracy support in the last decades. “Our efforts to support democracy in Europe go hand in hand with our support of democracy in other countries. We have observed elections all over the world for over three decades. We have a history of sharing knowledge”, said Metsola, adding that Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine is a reminder that there is still a lot of work to be done.

In the panel about EU’s commitments to democracy, the speakers reflected upon building democratic resilience from within. Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Democracy and Demography, said: “We cannot take democracy for granted. Democracy dies when we stop caring for it. We must engage citizens. They should be an integral part of how we design our policies.”

In his introductory remarks during the panel on the parliamentary democratic culture of consensus and compromise, Talat Xhaferi, Speaker of the Parliament of North Macedonia, gave some suggestions about how to protect democracy in the future: “We need to go back to basics and explain why democratic values are important and why the rule of law is beneficial for people’s lives.”

Eamon Gilmore, EU Special Representative on Human Rights, expressed his concern about the recent regression of democracy and human rights in many countries and enumerated several examples: restriction and regulation of Civil Society Organisations, censorship and intimidation of journalists, internet shutdown during protests. For him it is not possible to protect human rights without protecting democracy. Eamon Gilmore mentioned the Team Europe Democracy Initiative as an important contribution to support democracy and human rights worldwide.

During the working session “Team Europe Democracy: Cooperation between EU Institutions, Member States, National Parliaments, international democracy support community and the European Parliament”, Chiara Adamo, Acting Director, Human Development, Migration, Governance and Peace at DG INTPA presented in more detail the Team Europe Democracy Initiative created to support democracy around the world. “Democracy is at risk”, said Adamo. “More than two-thirds of the world’s population are living now under authoritarian regimes or retrocedent democracies. It is imperative to show the importance of democracy and deliver together. We need to strengthen democratic resilience, and that is why we created the TED initiative, so that we can work more effectively together on the ground.”

At the end of the conference, good practices and lessons-learned from the past ten years in the areas of election observation, mediation, parliamentary support, capacity building, promotion of human rights and engagement with the civil society were recapitulated. The conference participants made recommendations for future priorities for the European Parliament’s democracy support. The importance of mediation such as through the Jean Monnet Dialogues, of leadership, use of digital tools, inclusion of minorities in the debates, as well as a coordinated approach on the ground and international cooperation were emphasised for the way forward.