Margot Wallström
“What Europe can do about democracy?”
It was Sir Winston Churchill, the great British statesman, who said: “Democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried”. I do agree with him. We have had in Europe rule by Roman emperors; rule by kings who claimed a divine right to govern; rule by revolutionary terror; rule by military dictators. We have had Fascism and Communism. At its birth, democracy was practised in just one city state, Athens, and it was reserved for free men only. No slaves, no women. Democratic societies have come a long way since then, but human rights and freedoms are still a live issue in many countries today. Women, even in the most democratic societies, are still under-represented and discriminated against in all walks of life . Democracy is inseparable from human rights. There cannot be true democracy without freedom of choice, expression and association for all citizens.
If democracy can transcend national boundaries, it has the potential to bring peace, stability and prosperity to whole regions of the globe. How can we make that happen?
Let me begin by the European experience of trans-national democracy. Until 1950, democratic government in Europe was based on the nation state, and was also exercised at regional and local levels within each State. It was in the aftermath of the Second World War, in 1950, that Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman first proposed a brand new method of organising international affairs in Europe. Essentially, the proposal was that European nation states, while remaining sovereign, should pool their sovereignty. Aggression on the battlefield would be replaced by agreement around the table.
Initially, this was not a ‘trans-national democracy’ but rather a trans-national technocracy, designed to organise a common market. But in 1979, for the very first time, the European Parliament was directly elected. Since then, direct elections have been held every five years.
The EU’s democratic legitimacy thus comes from having a Parliament directly elected by the people and a Council of ministers from all the EU’s democratically-elected governments.
Is it sufficient to win the trust of citizens? People in Europe want the EU to be simpler, more transparent and more directly democratic. Most want their countries to continue working together, jointly facing the challenges of globalisation. However, this is a difficult process. It can succeed only if it is anchored in democracy. Europe's citizens and their organisations must be given a stronger voice and we decision makers must listen carefully to people's hopes and concerns.
The EU has been good at building roads, railways and other infrastructure to stimulate a borderless economy. It must now stimulate a frontier-free democracy by building a Europe-wide democratic infrastructure. It must enable people and popular movements to meet in a cross border setting and develop a dialogue at grassroots level.
EU enlargement and neighbourhood policy
The European Union has grown from six to 25 countries, bringing former dictatorships and ex-Communist countries into the European family of democratic nations. By insisting on fulfilling democratic conditions for membership, the European Union has consolidated democracy and economic reform across the European continent. This in turn has boosted prosperity in the new member states, whose economies are now growing fast.
Today, Europe is freely and peacefully united for the first time in its history – a success which we should not underestimate. The European Union acts as a magnet to its neighbours in regions such as the Balkans and the southern Caucasus. Its gravitational attraction helps these countries strengthen their own democratic systems.
The EU is not – and has no wish to become – ‘fortress Europe’. Our borders must not become a kind of castle wall separating a stable, democratic and prosperous Europe from a surrounding world of instability and poverty. That would be in no-one’s interests. Instead, we want to share the benefits of EU enlargement with our neighbours to the east and south.
This new ‘European neighbourhood policy’ involves opening up the EU’s huge single market to goods from Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It also means working constructively with these neighbours on a whole range of issues: security; asylum and immigration; the environment; energy supplies… and, very importantly, democratic reform.
Building democracy in the wider world
Democratic societies, where the rule of law operates and human rights are respected, are stabler and more secure societies. They are also more open to international cooperation.
Stability, security and openness are essential for the trade and inward investment that bring economic development and prosperity. In a globalized world, this is crucial to us all. So, for the European Union, promoting democracy is not just a matter of solidarity with our friends abroad: it is also in our enlightened self-interest.
Most of our international relations include a joint commitment to democratization. Specific clauses on human rights and democracy feature in the Cotonou Agreement with our partners in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. They are also essential in the EU’s relations with the Andean Community and other players in Latin America, and with our Asian partners.
The EU’s aid programs – by far the biggest in the world – place strong emphasis on democracy support, institution-building and good governance.
The European Union also carries out election observation missions. These are crucial in helping countries around the world to ensure free and fair elections and strengthen the rule of law. Since 2000, the EU has organized more than 40 such missions, funded by the so-called ‘European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights’ which also promotes freedom of association and freedom of expression.
Building democracy the European way
The European approach attracts relatively little attention because it is based on long-term cooperation, gradually building democratic structures and reforming systems of government. There is nothing headline-grabbing about that. Nevertheless, step by step, it slowly reshapes the world.Europe’s transforming power is a ‘soft’ power that achieves its effect through the threat of non-intervention – the threat of withdrawing the EU’s hand of friendship if democratisation does not proceed or if human rights are violated.
Europe is certainly not the only region of the world with experience – and difficulties – in trans-national democracy. Africa and Latin America, for example, are also experimenting with new forms of transnational integration, via the African Union and the Andean Community.
How successful are these regional organizations at building and consolidating democracy? How effective are the peer reviews, peer assistance and peer pressure they have brought to bear? Many of the challenges are common to us all, and we can surely learn from each other.
The learning process must not stop once this conference is over. We need concrete action plans to advance democracy building on the national, regional and global level.
It takes time, patience and political will to build democracy. It took Europe two and half thousand years to get from free men voting on city-state decisions in Athens to men and women voting on Europe-wide decisions in Strasbourg. Thankfully, in the age of the Internet, progress no longer has to be that slow! Different regions of the world can now learn from each other very quickly, and can use new technologies to help democracy work more efficiently. As globalization brings us all closer together, let us use it to spread democracy throughout our contemporary world.
Margot Wallström (Biography)
