Webinar on the Call for Expression of Interest to Join the Team Europe Democracy (TED) Network

The Team Europe Democracy (TED) Initiative was launched by the European Commission and 14 EU Member States in 2021 to promote democracy and human rights worldwide. A webinar on the Call for Expression of Interest to join the TED Network, conducted by the TED Secretariat and DG INTPA on 10 March, was an opportunity to learn more about the TED Initiative and its objectives, the criteria for the TED Network membership and its operational modalities.

Laura Bretea, TED coordinator at DG INTPA, recognized the webinar as an important milestone and highlighted that the added value of the TED Network is to increase collaboration among EU institutions, EU staff, Member States and further stakeholders engaged in democracy support, including Europe-based international organisations. According to Ms. Bretea, the idea is not to replace already existing initiatives, but rather to increase coordination, share experiences and support the work done on democracy promotion on the ground.

Marie-Alexandra Kurth, Team Leader of the TED Secretariat, explained the structure, goals and membership criteria of the TED Network. She emphasised that the TED Initiative is a result of a request from Member States to create a network that would engage with Europe-based civil society organisations, academia and practitioners working in the areas of democracy and human rights. She added that the new platform will encourage joint actions and joint programming in coordination with the research pillar of the TED Initiative, Supporting Team Europe Democracy (STED), constituted of IDEA International, European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) and Carnegie Europe.

Julia Keutgen, programme manager at I-IDEA, described how the TED Network can contribute to and benefit from the research pillar. STED produces evidence-based data on democracy and democracy support through research and analysis. The Network can contribute to this knowledge production via its three working groups, which will focus on accountability and rule of law, political and civic participation, and media and digitalization. According to Ms. Keutgen, the Network can benefit from the produced knowledge as well as from the contacts and cooperations established by STED with global initiatives such as the Summit for Democracy (S4D). “Lots of organisations are leading the S4D cohorts, which are multistakeholder groups of Member States and Civil Society Organisations. They can also be part of the TED Network”, added Ms. Keutgen.

Speaking on behalf of the EPD and Carnegie, which together form the European Democracy Hub, EPD Director Ken Godfrey explained that the Hub analyses and produces data on the European support for democracy in different contexts around the world. The Hub focuses on policy issues and practitioners. Mr. Godfrey claimed that the TED Network can profit from the data on spendings of European governments on democracy support the Hub is producing. He encouraged the members of the European Democracy Hub to join the TED Network.

The webinar ended with a Q&A session. Sophie Besancenot, Intervention Manager of the TED Secretariat, encouraged the participants to write a message to secretariat@teamdemocracy.eu in case they had any further questions. The large number of participants showed that the expectations towards the new platform are high. 

The presentation prepared for the webinar can be accessed here: TED Webinar presentation on Call for Expression of Interest | Capacity4dev (europa.eu)