In their assessment of the proposed European Endowment for Democracy (EED), Hrant Kostanyan and Magdalena Nasieniak conclude that an instrument along the lines currently envisaged could and should take on the challenge to make the EU a truly committed, pro-active and effective leader of democracy assistance. A flexible and fast-track path of assessing needs and granting funds could become the most visible results of the EU’s assistance in this area, delivering almost immediate tangible results. They argue that the EED therefore needs to become an instrument free of nationally-driven decisions, European ‘turf wars’ and cumbersome bureaucracy.
Hrant Kostanyan is a Visiting Research Fellow at CEPS and a PhD candidate at the Centre for EU Studies at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Magdalena Nasieniak is a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics, International Studies and Languages at the University of Bath.
