The European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) welcomes the opening of the revision process of the EU strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy initiated this year by the European External Action Service (EEAS). We thank the EEAS and the Chair of COHOM for opening the discussion with Civil and Political Society Organisations (CPSOs) and for putting efforts in making it a genuine consultation process.
As a result of an internal consultation process and an external consultation with the enlarged community of practice on Democracy assistance which took place in Brussels on June 6th 2014, EPD proposes the following elements to be taken into consideration by the European Institutions and the EU Member States when reviewing, designing and adopting a new framework and action plan beyond 2014.
In particular, EPD recommends that:
- As a matter of consistency with EU policies, the new framework systematically mentions Human Rights and Democracy together;
- Strikes a balance between short term activities addressing technicalities, and medium to long term objectives addressing processes;
- The EEAS upgrades the guidance note on the implementation of the democracy profiles and action plans to facilitate the implementation of action plans related to Democracy assistance;
- EU staff, especially in the EU delegations, should get adequate training on issues related to democratic governance and assistance.
For more information, please read the written contribution of the Community of Practice. For comments and suggestions regarding this note, we invite you to send us an email to [email protected] with reference to this document.
