The European Parliament

CLIME Senior Fellow Samer Libdeh appeared on a panel of experts on “Democracy Promotion: Initiatives for Institutional Reform Inside and Outside the European Union”. Mr. Libdeh spoke on reform and democratization in the Middle East and on the role of the European Union and the United States in empowering liberals in the region. Speakers included Carl Gershman (Director, National Endowment for Democracy) and Scott Carpenter (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor).

Remarks by Samer Libdeh

There are number of practical steps that the EU institutions and national governments could undertake to promote institutional reform in the Arab Middle East, including:

• Realising that merely holding an election should not be an ultimate goal. A large number of Arab countries enjoy excellent cooperation with the EU through the instruments of the Association Agreements and of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Yet the people of many of these countries are not represented equally and their voices are not heard.

  In many cases, electoral laws and local redistricting of voting blocs are tactically designed to provide higher representation for a single-loyalist ethnicity at the expense of others, thus furthering frustration and radicalisation among the commonality. The EU should start adopting intelligent ways in its Action Plans with these governments to question the elements that hinder the progress towards true representative democracies.

• By working closely with lawmakers in the Middle East, parliamentarians in America and Europe should approach their counterparts in the region and provide them with advice and techniques to establish Reform Committees in their parliaments in order to oversee the governmental progress of political and economic liberalisation. So far, no Arab legislative branch has a fully dedicated committee working on domestic reforms to undertake that process.

• The EU should engage in sustained support for political parties with liberal democratic agendas, as well as their affiliated movements, civil society organisations and individuals. A clear policy on the ground in identifying those actors should be the top priority of EU towards countries in the MENA region.

  The European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, which runs annual projects in the Mashreq region, could be a cornerstone in reaching out to grassroots in the area. However, an understanding to differentiate between genuine NGOs and Para-governmental organisations is important to empower those groups and movements which are independent from governments.

• Empowering every network of liberal activists across the region by initiating a series of civil society conferences to bring together all believers of peaceful change with liberal values.

• Provide on-going capacity building support to the media sector in these countries by connecting editors with their counterparts in Europe and exposing them to European media outlets day-to-day editorial experiences.

  Currently, the vast majority of editors in many Arab states (from both private and state sector media) are co-opted by the governments. As a result, there is hardly any coverage of reform and development news items compared to the official governmental statements, meetings, and announcements that do little in preparing the public opinion for genuine change in their societies.

  Training programmes sponsored by the EU and its partners should focus on advanced day-to-day editorial policies. Without strong and credible local media, citizen’s attention is being diverted into pan-Arab channels, such as al-Jazeera, that do not address local realities and the need for reform, in depth and details, as is the case with local media outlets.

• The EU and the US should utilise their leverage of economic assistance to reach out to rural areas and secularise charity services and encourage investment in development. By working with governments and local authorities, the EU should start seeking ways to engage representatives from these areas to learn about the democratic institutions in the West, instead of depending on elites from urban regions and governmental proxies.

• At the governmental level, the EU might consider a new approach in providing and delivering conditional development assistance. There could be an equivalent to the American Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to ensure the accountability of the progress of and create a mechanism through which annual economic assistance will be linked to progress of reform in these countries.

Remarks by Samer Libdeh

There are number of practical steps that the EU institutions and national governments could undertake to promote institutional reform in the Arab Middle East, including:

• Realising that merely holding an election should not be an ultimate goal. A large number of Arab countries enjoy excellent cooperation with the EU through the instruments of the Association Agreements and of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Yet the people of many of these countries are not represented equally and their voices are not heard.

  In many cases, electoral laws and local redistricting of voting blocs are tactically designed to provide higher representation for a single-loyalist ethnicity at the expense of others, thus furthering frustration and radicalisation among the commonality. The EU should start adopting intelligent ways in its Action Plans with these governments to question the elements that hinder the progress towards true representative democracies.

• By working closely with lawmakers in the Middle East, parliamentarians in America and Europe should approach their counterparts in the region and provide them with advice and techniques to establish Reform Committees in their parliaments in order to oversee the governmental progress of political and economic liberalisation. So far, no Arab legislative branch has a fully dedicated committee working on domestic reforms to undertake that process.

• The EU should engage in sustained support for political parties with liberal democratic agendas, as well as their affiliated movements, civil society organisations and individuals. A clear policy on the ground in identifying those actors should be the top priority of EU towards countries in the MENA region.

  The European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, which runs annual projects in the Mashreq region, could be a cornerstone in reaching out to grassroots in the area. However, an understanding to differentiate between genuine NGOs and Para-governmental organisations is important to empower those groups and movements which are independent from governments.

• Empowering every network of liberal activists across the region by initiating a series of civil society conferences to bring together all believers of peaceful change with liberal values.

• Provide on-going capacity building support to the media sector in these countries by connecting editors with their counterparts in Europe and exposing them to European media outlets day-to-day editorial experiences.

  Currently, the vast majority of editors in many Arab states (from both private and state sector media) are co-opted by the governments. As a result, there is hardly any coverage of reform and development news items compared to the official governmental statements, meetings, and announcements that do little in preparing the public opinion for genuine change in their societies.

  Training programmes sponsored by the EU and its partners should focus on advanced day-to-day editorial policies. Without strong and credible local media, citizen’s attention is being diverted into pan-Arab channels, such as al-Jazeera, that do not address local realities and the need for reform, in depth and details, as is the case with local media outlets.

• The EU and the US should utilise their leverage of economic assistance to reach out to rural areas and secularise charity services and encourage investment in development. By working with governments and local authorities, the EU should start seeking ways to engage representatives from these areas to learn about the democratic institutions in the West, instead of depending on elites from urban regions and governmental proxies.

• At the governmental level, the EU might consider a new approach in providing and delivering conditional development assistance. There could be an equivalent to the American Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to ensure the accountability of the progress of and create a mechanism through which annual economic assistance will be linked to progress of reform in these countries.