EU to issue democracy deadlines for Euro-Med

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 08/09/05

The EU is to propose a series of measures to promote democracy in the Middle East, including the creation of a multimillion euro 'governance facility' for the region.

According to a draft declaration for the tenth anniversary Euro-Mediterranean summit, which takes place in Barcelona in November, the EU will set up the facility to "strengthen the fundamentals of democracy" in the Middle East and North Africa.

The move comes just months after the EU and US pledged at a summit in Washington in June to co-ordinate efforts to advance democracy in the region.

Despite initial resistance to the US' approach to promoting democracy throughout the world, the EU seems increasingly willing to toughen its stance on democratisation.

The UN's 2004 Arab Development Report published earlier this year heavily criticised efforts to reform the region as "embryonic and fragmentary".

A five-year work plan accompanying the draft declaration sets out targets for developing democracy in the region, including a deadline of 2010 for countries to ratify and implement all UN and regional charters on civil, political, social and economic rights.

While Euro-Med countries have signed up to agreements on women's and other rights, reservations are often issued, which campaigners say make implementation impossible.

According to Dick Oosting, the director of Amnesty International's EU office, the concrete targets now being proposed could make a difference if followed through.

"The assessment of human rights aspects of the Euro-Med process so far has been pretty negative," he said. "If they were to put up these concrete benchmarks that would help."

Oosting also welcomed the EU's targets for improving election monitoring in the region.

Drafted just ahead of the Egypt's first-ever contested elections, which have seen independent monitors barred from polling stations, the document also proposes increased co-operation in electoral reform and monitoring polls by next year.

Monitors would investigate voting fraud as well as access to media and other indicators of fairness in the run-up to elections.

"Euro-Mediterranean partners will develop mechanisms for co-operation on electoral systems and electoral observation by 2006," reads the draft.

But in a nod towards sensitivities about interference in the region, the draft states that the focus will be on building domestic and regional efforts.

The move chimes with a shift in EU public opinion. A poll published by the German Marshall Fund (see Page 14) showed that Europeans are more likely than Americans to favour actively promoting democracy in other countries.

Some hurdles for the projects remain. According to European Commission officials, no sum has yet been agreed for the governance facility and a pledge to increase democracy aid is "unlikely" to come before the meeting because no deal has been done on the EU's budget after 2006.

Article discusses a draft of the declaration for the tenth anniversary Euro-Mediterranean summit, scheduled for November 2005, Barcelona. The EU was to propose a series of measures to promote democracy in the Middle East, including the creation of a multimillion euro 'governance facility' for the region and an election monitoring initiative.

EEAS: Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EUROMED) http://eeas.europa.eu/euromed/index_en.htm

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