New EU Members Add Democracy Aid to Their Agendas

April 29, 2005

April 29 – May 2 – IRI's Regional Program for Central and Eastern Europe organized and hosted the second in its series of transatlantic seminars in Bratislava, Slovakia. Entitled “Evolving Concepts of Democracy Promotion in the Transatlantic Relationship,” this seminar brought together 35 political leaders, representatives of ministries of foreign affairs, and nongovernmental organization leaders from Central and Western Europe and the United States to examine how the democracy promotion agenda is evolving in the region and outside. New European Union (EU) member states, including Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Visegrad Four (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia), are now deciding whether and how to incorporate democracy promotion as part of their national strategies. The seminar offered representatives from these countries – all of which were until recently recipients of democracy aid – an opportunity to learn more about where the democracy promotion field is heading and to examine how democracy programming in places like Belarus, Cuba, and the Middle East may help support national (and EU) foreign policy objectives. As an additional component of the meeting, the Regional Program included a discussion with a group of Iraqis on a visit in Bratislava as part of the IRI-funded Young Iraqi Leaders Program of the Pontis Foundation. Representatives of both the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (from Germany) and the Fundaci?n para el An?lisis y los Estudios Sociales (from Spain) also participated in the event.

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