Democratic Governance and Democracy Support
The European Consensus on Development identifies good governance, democracy and respect for human rights as integral to the process of sustainable development and as major objectives of EU development policy.
The EU policy framework in the area of democratic governance was laid down by the Council in various conclusions since 2003. The EU approach to governance is broad: as illustrated in a 2006 Commission Communication (doc. 12572/06), there is no particular institutional model for democratic governance, which is deemed to comprise several dimensions. The different levels of governance (local, national, international) are also important and the key role that local authorities can play in achieving the MDGs is underlined.
In the context of its 2006 Communication, the Commission presented - with regard to the ACP countries and the strategy for Africa - the "Governance Initiative", an incentive mechanism that gives ACP partner countries access to additional funding on the basis of their commitment to deliver governance reforms. A total of 2.7 billion euros from the 10th European Development Fund was thus reserved for such incentives and allocated through the "Governance Incentive Tranche".
Moreover, democratic governance and human rights have in the meantime become one of the pillars of the Africa / EU Joint Strategy and the Action Plan 2008-2010: they are one of the 8 thematic partnerships. This is expected to result in an enhanced dialogue and coordination at global level on governance between the two continents, as well as on a more strategic support to the consolidation of the pan-African governance architecture. It is foreseen to launch a Governance Platform for dialogue, as well as to support the implementation of the African charter on human rights, democracy and governance, and the African peer-review mechanism (APRM) process and the implementation of the reforms identified at country level.
In November 2008, the Council adopted conclusions on local authorities as actors for development, underlining their contribution to enhancing democratic local governance.
In May 2009 the Council adopted conclusions on "Support to Democratic Governance - Towards and enhanced EU framework" whereby it renewed its support to the Governance Initiative. On the same occasion, Development ministers had a discussion on strengthening and coordinating policy dialogue in development policy.
In the first part of 2009, the Czech Presidency and the future Swedish Presidency launched a joint cross-pillar initiative to increase the coherence and effectiveness of EU support to democracy building and invited the Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council to prepare a concept paper on this issue. The paper, which takes stock of the tools and instruments the EU has at its disposal to build democracy and makes recommendations on how they could be used more effectively, was submitted on 27 July 2009 (doc. 12390/09) and serve as a basis for Council Conclusions.
On 18 November 2009, the Council adopted Conclusions on Democracy Support in the EU’s External Relations – Towards Increased Coherence and Effectiveness (doc. 16081/09). The EU has a broad range of tools at its disposal to support democracy in its external relations. The Conclusions and the attached EU Agenda for Action do not call for new or other instruments, but offer a framework for using the existing instruments in a more coherent and effective way, without introducing new conditionality for EU development aid.
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