Brussels, 13/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Members of the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament called on the Council, on Monday 12 March, to ensure that the new European fund for democracy (FEDEM) will allow the Union to adopt a more strategic and political approach in supporting democracy by providing tailor-made, flexible, responsive assistance which harkens to the needs of beneficiaries and which can be rescheduled rapidly. The fund should be granted as a priority to the neighbouring countries of the EU, “but not exclusively”.
With adoption by a large majority of the report by Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the foreign affairs committee trusts that the FEDEM will support a broad range of players working to bring about democratisation, and that it will grant subsidies to beneficiaries directly.
MEPs want the work of this fund to complete that of the existing financing instruments, especially the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), without encroaching upon their activities. They also want it to be in synergy with and complementary to the instruments of the member states and the organisations funded thereby through close cooperation and the creation of partnerships, while avoiding duplication.
Parliament's involvement. MEPs call for the fund to have a “transparent and open governance structure” on the basis of a flexible and effective administrative structure, with simple mechanisms for granting subsidies that strike a balance between the representatives of member states and the institutions of the Union, experts and independent professionals. They trust that the future steering committee and the secretariat of the FEDEM will be in perfect coordination with the European External Action Service. MEPs also want to have authority extended to political oversight of the fund's activities, and to be associated and consulted throughout the process of the fund's creation, its setting in place and its operation, mainly thanks to the presence of MEPs within its governing board and its management committee. (CG/transl.jl)