Roundtable on Democracy Assistance Policies of the Visegrad Four Countries

On May 15, CPS hosted a roundtable discussion on democracy assistance policies together with PASOS, the Policy Association for an Open Society.

The Visegrad Four countries are potentially key actors in helping neighbouring countries with the process of democratisation and European integration, and in assisting to foster greater freedom of association, respect for human rights, and democratisation. The roundtable brought together senior officials at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with representatives of non-governmental organizations working on democracy assistance issues, for a briefing and discussion on the preliminary outcomes of a research project 'Evaluation of Visegrad Countries' Democratic Assistance Programs' funded by the International Visegrad Fund and carried out under the leadership of PASOS. Research for the project was undertaken in the Visegrad Four Countries and in four target countries, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cuba, and Ukraine. The research looked at both projects funded by the Visegrad Four governments and at initiatives undertaken by non-governmental actors from the Visegrad Four countries with support from non-Visegrad sources of funding. The project compared the democracy assistance priorities of the Visegrad countries, and put their policies and priorities in perspective in the context of EU democracy assistance efforts. CPS led the Hungarian study, which was carried out by Aron Horvath, and the roundtable discussion was moderated by CPS Research Fellow Andrew Cartwright. The results of the study will be presented to the public in late June.