Polen voorstander van Europees Fonds voor Democratie (en)

Under-Secretary of State for Development at Poland’s MFA Krzysztof Stanowski and Secretary of State for European Affairs Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, outlined their vision for the ‘European Endowment for Democracy’ in Strasbourg on Tuesday, saying that it was “obvious” for Poland to be a strong supporter of such an instrument.

Speaking at the European Parliament in the second of the Polish Presidency’s ‘Meet the Presidency’ meetings, Mr Stanowski told MEPs that Poland’s experience of the transition from communism to a pluralist, democratic European Union gave it a particular desire to support democratic movements elsewhere.

“Twenty-five years ago, people would say ‘Democracy in Poland? No way’, and until recently they said ‘Democracy in Arab North Africa? No way’ - but it can be done”, explained Mr Stanowski.

The minister added that EU membership was a vital pull factor for Poland. This tool is not available for countries such as Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, he said, so we need other tools to nurture local democratic movements - hence the European Endowment for Democracy.

He went on to explain the concept of the Endowment, which would be non-partisan instrument to make grants to local democratic movements, support NGOs, and support the transition to democracy. The instrument would not create new institutions and would be co-managed, ‘at arm’s length’ by the European External Action Service (EEAS i), the European Commission and the European Parliament.

The fund - which could gradually grow to a maximum of around €100m per year - would be financed by the European budget as well as by additional contributions from EU member states. It would be used to support burgeoning democratic movements in countries like Burma, Belarus and Zimbabwe.

Negotiations between the institutions are ongoing, and the Presidency hopes to reach an agreement in the Council towards the end of the year.

MEPs at the event responded favourably to the initiative. Edward McMillan-Scott, a Vice-President of the European Parliament, said that the European Endowment for Democracy is ”an idea whose time has come - and we need to act before its time has passed”. MEPs Ana Gomes, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Olle Schmidt and Marek Siwiec also spoke.

Meet the Presidency is an initiative of the Polish Presidency to foster better dialogue between the Council Presidency and MEPs. It will be held during each plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The next meeting is on Tuesday 15 November.