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May 27 – June 2, 2013

To become a flexible and responsive tool to promote democracy

The situation has not changed
To become a flexible and responsive tool to promote democracy

This is the basic idea behind the European Empowerment for Democracy, officially launched in Brussels on May 27th, 2013.

The European Commission, jointly with a number of EU Member States and Switzerland have established a new fund, its official launch took place in the Polish Embassy in Brussels.

The work on establishing the European Empowerment for Democracy took more than two years”, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said at the opening ceremony. „For the first time, the idea was voiced in early 2011. It was the time when decisive actions were needed: a little more than a month had passed after the December 2010 events, when the democratic aspirations of thousands of Belarusians were ruined and suppressed by the Lukashenko regime once again”.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Jerzy Pomianowsky was appointed Executive Director of the European Endowment for Democracy.

European Empowerment for Democracy is a new form of assistance for all those who want their country to care for democracy and human rights,” commented Mr. Pomianowski SBIO’s question about the main differences between EED and other European foundations. „The EED’s ability to respond to assistance requests will be more rapid compared with other EU grants schemes, because its project proposal submission procedures will be less complicated. All in all, the EED procedures assume to be less bureaucratic and more flexible”.

Pavol Demes and Jerzy Pomianowsky against ’Viasna’ EED banner was signed by all participants, including

Human Rights Centre web-site background Yuliya Slutskaya, SBIO Director

Polish Foreign Minister Rodoslaw Sikorski

took part in the EED opening ceremony

The main idea behind the EED is to reach out with assistance to where other European funds cannot due to various bureaucratic reasons. We hope to provide democratic assistance in areas that were left untouched before”, EED Executive Director said.

Note from SBIO:

The EED opening ceremony was attended by:

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkiavichus, Head of the European Parliament’s Committee on Belarus Filip Kaczmarek, Head of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Elmar Brok, former Solovak Foreign Minister and the German Marshall Fund expert Pavol Demes, Polish Foundation for International Solidarity President Krzysztof Stanowski, embassies representatives, as well as journalists, experts, analysts, and public figures from Belarus, Ukraine, Tunisia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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