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Democracy promotion / Other publications

No lasting Peace and Prosperity without Democracy

05/07/2005 By Richard Youngs

Recognising the profoundly changed international context and the lessons learned from more than a decade of human rights and democracy assistance, the study advocates a more ‘upfront’ and strategic approach to democracy and human rights support by the European Union in third countries.

In addition, it is recommended that the efforts of the EU institutions become more systematically aligned with the expertise available in European civil society. The study presents a number of concrete options for improving the quality of the EU’s democracy and human rights assistance. Taken together these suggestions would constitute a new and more comprehensive architecture for democracy and human rights promotion.

The historic momentum to advance and consolidate democracy in the world calls on the European Parliament to once again provide the leadership to ensure that such reforms are implemented in a timely fashion and that the connection is made between the norms Europe values internally and the policies it supports externally.

By presenting this broader picture, the research team hopes to stimulate debate in the European Parliament over the strategic direction and purpose that is required prior to agreement on more specific procedural changes.

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Keywords

Aid policy Democracy European Union Human rights

Bio author: Richard Youngs

Richard Youngs is Senior Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Democratisation programme at FRIDE. He also lectures at the University of Warwick in the UK. He studied at Cambridge (BA Hons) and Warwick (MA, PhD) universities.