The support given during the 1990s to the emerging democracies of Central Europe in their process of transition to EU membership was arguably the greatest achievement of the European Union to date. But compared with the more flexible support to dissidents by the US government, the EU waited until the fall of authoritarian regimes before offering this generous support, both financially and vocally.
With the accession to the EU of Romania and Bulgaria in January 2007, 10 former communist countries with their own recent experience of authoritarian rule are now EU members; but is the EU doing enough today for those where the transition process has slowed, or faltered, or where authoritarian rule has remained or become even more entrenched?
This series of panels will look at the different models of supporting democratic movements, the performance and priorities of new EU members in their efforts to promote democracy and assist the transition to democracy in other countries in Europe and Central. It will look at the impact of different approaches to support democracy movements in countries such as Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, and Uzbekistan. It will seek to outline a vision of a new model for European democracy support, taking a more flexible, quick-reaction funding approach, including mechanisms to protect the identity of recipients of support so as not to jeopardise their safety and those of their families.
The panels are being organised in the framework of a PASOS project, The Evaluation of Visegrad Countries’ Democratic Assistance Programmes, which is funded with the support of the
International Visegrad Fund, the
Open Society Institute Think-Tank Fund, and the
Local Government and Public Service Reform Initative (LGI) of the Open Society Institute.
Panel I: Strategies to bring Democracy to Belarus: Moving from survival tactics to democracy promotion and high-impact diplomacy
This panel will examine the record of democracy movements and their international supporters in the former Czechoslovakia, Poland and Serbia, and their lessons for strategies in Belarus
Panellists
(Moderator: Jeff Lovitt, Executive Director, Policy Association for an Open Society)
Aliaksandr Milinkievich, presidential candidate, 2006, United Democratic Forces of Belarus
Pirkka Tapiola, Senior Adviser, Policy Unit, Secretariat of the Council of the European Union
Andrei Sannikov, international co-ordinator, Charter 97, Belarus
Balazs Jarabík, Civil Society Development Program for Belar us PACT
Luboš Veselý, Senior Research Fellow, Association for International Affairs (AMO), Czech Republic
Panel II: A European Democracy Foundation: A new model for democracy promotion and as
sistance
This panel will present the results of preliminary research on the priorities and actual funding allocations of four new EU member-states (Visegrad Four) in support of democratic movements and civil society in Belarus, Bosnia-and-Herzegovina, Cuba and Ukraine, and also their support to strengthen and deepen democracy in their neighbours. The panel will debate new directions for democracy promotion and assistance, in particular the formation of a European Democracy Foundation
Panellists
(Moderator: Jeff Lovitt, Executive Director, Policy Association for an Open Society)
Borys Tarasyuk, Chairman, Political Party "People's Movement of Ukraine", Ukraine
Kristof Forrai, Executive Director, International Visegrad Fund
Martin Bútora, Honorary President, Institute for Public Affairs, Slovakia
Marieke van Doorn, Policy Officer - International Relations, Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, Netherlands
David Král, President, EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, Czech Republic