Democracy plans in disarray

Endowment struggles to attract funding.

The European Union is struggling to find the means to support democratic movements outside its territory. Foreign ministers meeting in Brussels today (1 December) are supposed to endorse the launch of a European Endowment for Democracy, but preparations for the new body are in disarray. The text that will be submitted to the ministers is being discussed by national ambassadors to the EU only this morning, amid doubts that the Endowment will be able to attract sufficient funding. 

The creation of such an endowment was approved by the EU’s member states when they adopted revisions to the European Neighbourhood Policy in June. The idea is to give the EU the means to support political parties, civil society groups and individual pro-democracy activists in countries under authori-tarian rule or making a transition to democracy. The endowment is supposed to be able to react quickly and nimbly to new developments, unlike existing EU funding lines such as the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, which have complex application and accountability procedures.

Establishing the endowment as an independent foundation – in essence, a non-governmental organisation – appears to have gained the support of most member states, but the European Commission and Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, hesitate over the reduced control this implies.

Ashton’s lack of enthusiasm would appear to be shared elsewhere in the Commission. When Štefan Füle, the European commissioner for enlargement and neighbourhood policy, addressed the civil society forum of the Eastern Partnership in Poznan, Poland, on Monday (28 November), he devoted just one sentence to the endowment. And in a speech to the Brookings Institution, a think-tank based in Washington, DC, in July, Ashton did not mention it at all – even though her topic was the EU’s response to the Arab uprisings.

The idea of an endowment for democracy precedes the turmoil that swept across the Arab world this year, but the conspicuous inadequacy of the EU’s response to the Arab uprisings provided momentum for its launch. “The EU is often behind the curve on demo-cratisation,” says Richard Youngs, the director of Fride, a Madrid-based think-tank, and editor of a recent book about the EU and democracy promotion. “A year into the Arab spring and there is barely any additional money flowing, except in Tunisia.”

Polish push

The main impetus came from Poland, the current holder of the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, and Radoslaw Sikorski, its indefatigable foreign minister, who have pushed hard for the endowment to become a reality. But have they been pushing too hard? “There is a real danger that there won’t be nearly enough funding available,” a national diplomat said. “The Poles will ruin [the endowment] by rushing it through.”

Funding has become a central issue because of the plan to set up the Endowment as a private body outside the EU’s orbit, similar to the National Endowment for Democracy in the United States (see box). Member states will voluntarily contribute funding, which is expected to reach between €30 million and €50m in the first year – although many officials believe this figure to be unrealistically high. Youngs sees a trade-off in the endowment’s status: “The further away from the EU institutions, the more flexibility the endowment will have – but it will also have less support from the EU, and no guaranteed resources.”

Fact File

US National Endowment for Democracy

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), established in 1983, is funded primarily by the US Congress, but operates as a private, non-profit foundation, with financial contributions from other foundations, corporations and individuals. The NED operates in more than 90 countries, and last year provided more than 1,000 grants with an average grant size of $50,000 (€37,500). It channels much of its funding through four partner organisations: the foundations of the Republican and Democratic Party; the Center for International Private Enterprise; and the Solidarity Center of the main trade union federation (AFL-CIO). It does not provide direct funding to individuals.

Autonomous institution

Even though the endowment will operate autonomously from the EU, it fell to Ashton to draft the text that goes before the foreign ministers. A diplomat described the current situation between Poland and Ashton as “very delicate”. “This is primarily a Polish initiative,” an aide to Ashton said. “This is entirely in Ashton’s hands,” said a Polish official when asked about the proposal. A senior EU official said that “there is no agreement among member states at present”.

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In June, Ashton told a meeting of the Community of Democracies in Vilnius that she supported Sikorski’s initiative, describing the endowment as “flexible, non-bureaucratic, free of the imprint of government and free of EU bodies, and which can help countries find their democratic voice”.

Unless the foreign ministers are very careful, Poland’s vision of how to nurture democracy – shared only partially by other member states – will be clouded by poor preparation. The Endowment needs adequate funding and wholehearted political support. Neither is guaranteed.