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The Office for Promotion of Parliamentary Democracy (OPPD)

The Office for Promotion of Parliamentary Democracy -An Overview of its first 2 years work (2008-2009)

In 2007, the Bureau of the European Parliament created the Office for Promotion of Parliamentary Democracy (OPPD) to actively contribute to the strengthening of parliaments worldwide. It focuses in particular on providing assistance to the parliaments of New and Emerging Democracies (NEDs) as part of the EP's Foreign and Development policies. The OPPD was set up within the Directorate-General for External Policies of the European Parliament’s (EP) General Secretariat and started working effectively in 2008 when its Director and Assistant were joined by an Administrator and second Assistant. The current new EP legislature has for the first time also given to one of its Vice-Presidents, Mr. Edward McMillan Scott, the portfolio of democracy and human rights, underlining as such the importance of the subject for the EP.

Ever since, the OPPD has acted with a three-fold agenda:

1. Assisting in the establishment and the reform of new parliaments and aims at strengthening their capacity to implement essential functions including lawmaking, oversight and representation.

2. Fostering research of parliamentary practices.

3. Assisting the EP in EU Democracy Support Policy making and Oversight of its implementation.

Its functioning is aimed at being a practical and complementary tool to the European Parliament's Delegations, Election Observation Missions, Human Rights activities and the Pre s iden t in hisparliamentary diplomacy work. As an organisation, the OPPD is a small structure but with a horizontal mandate, which allows it to make use of all the relevant services of the EP and to coordinate all EP democracy support activities in close collaboration with various DGs, political groups, Members and the Cabinet of President; all of which are brought in to contribute to the implementation of the support to the new and emerging democratic (NED) parliaments.

The OPPD: an effective instrument of support

'The development of parliamentary institutions is synonymous with democratisation and their sound functioning is a fundamental requirement of democracy', Conference of EU Speakers of Parliament, Copenhagen 2006

'The EP has undertaken to provide the PAP and several other parliaments with all possible assistance. We regard this support as decisive for the building of democratic institutions and more broadly for strengthening democracy. As President of the EP I am determined to pursue this cause intensely." Former President Pöttering, at EP-PAP Pre-Summit meeting on 7 December 2007

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'Without solid representative institutions, empowered and capable of expressing the will of the people by legislating and overseeing government action, democracy will remain incomplete, fragile and unfulfilling', President J. Buzek

1. The How and What of OPPD's support to NED Parliaments

The OPPD acts on the initiative of N E D Parliaments and targets the identified needs of each parliament through training,

strategic counselling and exchange of experiences. Support initiatives can also be derived from resolutions adopted by the EP, the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, or other trans-national assemblies such as EURONEST, or EOM recommendations in addition to the decisions taken by the Bureau or the Conference of Presidents. Over the last two years priority regions for action have been Africa and the European Neighborhood Countries.

OPPD's demand-driven, peer-to-peer,technical and capacity-building assistance is focused on: Setting up parliamentary organizations Implementing administrative and

institutional reform Initiating parliamentary legislative

cooperation and sharing of best practices Developing ICT Strategies

Wherever possible the OPPD coordinates its work with other EU institutions and other actors active with partner parliaments.

Over the last two years, main types of support to NED Parliaments were based on:

1.1. Long-term Cooperation Programmes

Following a request for cooperation and support from a Speaker or Secretary-General of a NED parliament and based on political guidelines established by the European Parliament leadership, the OPPD may proceed with a needs assessment mission in the partner country. This identifies the possible avenues for cooperation through discussions with all stakeholders, primarily the parliamentarians and parliamentary staff, but also other actors engaged in supporting the parliament and civil society representatives.

The recommendations of the needs assessment report are shared with the NED parliament in order to establish an order of priority, and, subsequently, a long-term circular process of activities and feedback is initiated. So far such long-term cooperation programmes have been established with Burundi, Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and the Pan African Parliament. Request for support from the Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Seychelles, Timor Leste, Zimbabwe, ECOWAS, SADC Parliaments and East African Legislative Assembly should lead to new cooperation programmes in 2010.The demand for such programmes is continuously increasing and new arrangements with the European Commission are likely to stimulate this development even further.

'The support provided by the EP, at a moment when Moldova's Parliament faces numerous difficulties, is of tremendous help and will be impacting positively its operational and functional capacities', M. Ghimpu - President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova

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The long-term cooperation programme may entail the following elements:• Placement of staff at the EP under the

Democracy Fellowship Programme;• Targeted study missions for

Parliamentarians and/or staff at the EP;• Organisation of seminars at the EP or in

the partner country;• Provision of technical assistance through

sending staff or MEPs to work with NED parliament counterparts.

• Counseling on strategy for development, parliamentary rules of procedure and other

The OPPD works, wherever other actors are active in supporting the parliament, in close collaboration with those. Particular efforts are made to join efforts with the EU Delegations in countries concerned on financial and technical parliamentary assistance projects. In Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, Pakistan and Yemen but also for the Pan African Parliament for instance the EC has requested the OPPD to provide strategic advice on their parliamentary support plans and projects and the OPPD is providing complementary support. This kind of cooperation is effectively reinforcing each other and enhancing the EU input and image in the partner country.

EP twinning with the Pan-African Parliament (PAP)

One of the OPPD’s main priorities is working with regional transborder parliaments. The EP has been a close ally and permanent partner of the PAP since its creation in March 2004. It accompanies the PAP in setting out its strategy and priorities for its development and assists it in its various endeavours, from the building of its infrastructure, the choice of ICT, setting up interpretation and translation mechanisms to the development of finance and audit systems, as well as the sharing of best practices.This is done through various study missions and technical assistance services both at the EP and in Midrand (South Africa) where the PAP has its seat, through a series of fellowships for its core staff, and active participation in strategic discussions regarding the development of the PAP. Close coordination of activities by other donors is ensured through bi-annual conferences.

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"Being a tutor of the Georgian fellow was a very fulfilling Endeavour. Not only did I enjoy sharing how we do provide assistance to our committee, but also did I learn quite a bit on the country that falls under the remit of my committee and on the operation of the Georgian Parliament." AFET Tutor of the Fellow

Examples of the Democracy Fellowship Programme

1.2. The Democracy Fellowship Programme

The objective of the Democracy Fellowship Programme is to support NED parliamentary development by enhancing parliaments' capacity in implementing the chief functions of lawmaking, oversight and representation. The Programme is targeted at mid-ranking officials and - to a lesser extent - members of NED parliaments. The programme which was launched in June 2008 has since hosted 16 fellows from around the world.

The Democracy Fellowships, which include training and practical work at the European Parliament, are based on the initiative and needs of the NED parliament in question. They offer an opportunity for a period of up to 3 months, to team up with colleagues in various departments of the European Parliament in finding solutions for identified capacity-building needs in each partner parliament.

The sphere of sharing expertise is vast and has so far amongst others included the reform of administrative rules and procedures, staff management, legislative, research and committee work, translation and interpretation mechanisms, enhancing parliaments' communication activities or gathering expertise on ICT solutions for the use of parliaments. The relevant units of the European Parliament have fully cooperated in the spheres of their expertise and contributed to the success of the programme. The European Parliament covers travel, accommodation, and subsistence costs entailed in participation.Following the programs both the fellows and the hosting services underlined the overall positive experience, in some cases EP hosting services underlined that they had not only 'benefited from the intercultural exchange but also learned something from the fellow's parliamentary practice'.

Throughout the two years of operations OPPD has implemented Fellowship Programs with:

Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Lebanon, Timor Leste, Kyrgyzstan, Panafrican Parliament, Mercosur Parliament, Andean Parliament, Central AmericanParliament.

Cooperation withthe Georgian Parliament

In 2008 a staff member of the External Affairs committee of the Georgian Parliament spent 7 weeks with the EP AFET secretariat to familiarize herself with EP secretariat work. She was shadowing the w o r k of one of the AFET Secretariat Administrators and gradually was asked to contribute to the Secretariat's work.

Cooperation with the Andean Parliament, the Mercosur Parliament and the Parliament of Central America

In 2008 and 2009 the OPPD in close cooperation with the Latin America Unit (EuroLat) hosted representatives from the Andean, Mercosur and Central AmericanParliaments. The goal of thesefellowships was to introduce the fellows to the daily operation of the European Parliament with an objective to strengthen the integration process in Latin America as well asconcretely b u i l d the capacity of those parliament's secretariats in preparing, organizing and holding EUROLAT meetings and sessions.

"It is important to have a better understanding on how the European Parliament operates in practice in order to make consequent adjustments back home" says the administrator of the Andean Parliament Secretariat.

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1.3. Study Visits

In addition to more comprehensive forms of cooperation, the OPPD hosts specific thematic study visits for NED parliaments. The study visits aim to deepen knowledge of the target groups about the EP and in particular the specific subject addressed by the mission. The visits provide an opportunity for assessing possibilities for and interest in further cooperation. The visits can serve as a first step in establishing a long-term support programme and may also be part of EP partners (e.g. EC and UNDP) parliamentary support.

During the last two years the OPPD hosted about 20 study visits for the following parliaments:

Georgia, Oman, Bahrain, ECOWAS Parliament, Chile, SADC PF, Arab Transitional Parliament, Seychelles, Iraq, Afghanistan, East African Legislative Assembly, Burundi, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, PAP

A Sample of Study visits to the EP

Visit by members and staff of the Parliament of Chile to study committee work and support systems to Members of the European ParliamentVisit of leaders of the political groups of the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan, focusing on work of the EP political groups and political administration

Mission of ECOWAS parliament members, analysing EP direct elections in light of their plans towards direct elections

Working visit of staff of the Parliament of Georgia, for familiarisation with the EP’s legislative work

Study mission for Iraqi parliamentarians, focusing on the parliamentary oversight options

Visit by East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) leadership for familiarisation with EP political management and exploration of avenues of cooperation

Parliamentary buildings visit for PAP team (Members, staff and architects) involved in developing and building the new PAP building

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As already mentioned the OPPD is working closely with the EC in this field as the EC recognizes the EP's value added. Currently the EC is finalizing a study on its parliamentary supportwork which had been recommended by the OPPD and in parallel is developing parliamentary development practical guidelines for the EC Delegations. The OPPD is actively involved in reviewing and contributing to both papers which will be published at the beginning of 2010.

Aside from the above the OPPD is also engaged in deepening the knowledge and in facilitatingexchanges on specific topics regarding parliamentary life (see fostering research part below) and work such as on ICT and Parliament through its engagement in the World e-Parliament Conferences and related activities. Together with organisations such as UN-DESA, UNDP, World Bank Institute and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) a number of projects were elaborated such as legislative drafting guidelines, an African news monitoring service, an African parliamentary knowledge network, and software applications for African parliaments. The OPPD has also been actively contributing to the ongoing efforts towards the development of standards or benchmarks for democratic parliaments, mirroring the earlier international standards for free and fair elections work. It was engaged in the study group that elaborated the Commonwealth Parliamentary Assembly (CPA) Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures and is a member of the standards s t ee r ing group. Recently other parliamentary associations or parliamentary support actors have developed their benchmarks, minimum criteria or self assessment tools such the IPU, the SADC Parliamentary Forum and the Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie. In March 2010 an international conference on the subject taking stock of the different initiatives, is scheduled to take place in March in Paris.

2. Building Partnerships and Coordination

The OPPD cooperates with national EU parliaments, regional transborder parliaments, parliamentary associations and international organizations active in the field of parliamentary development. The aim is to create a community of parliamentary practitioners. It also facilitates the sharing of experiences and best practices of parliamentary methods and applications. Such partnerships and continuous coordination and cooperation are of paramount importance to leverage the limited resources in this relatively new field of democracy support to results.

The OPPD is partnering with the UNDP, the World Bank Institute, the National Democratic Institute, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the European Commission in order to launch a global knowledge hub for parliamentary development. This knowledge hub, known as Agora, aims at being a one-stop shop for all relevant information on parliamentary development and at facilitating exchange and discussion on different aspects of parliamentary work. The site agora-parl.netwill be launched at the beginning of 2010

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3. Supporting a Strong EU Democracy Promotion Agenda

'We should promote democracyand models of good governance'. Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament

The event also presented some useful experiences in the use of ICT in parliamentary work which were not yet approached by the EP. It is encouraging to see that the WePC has also helped to trigger the EP to further develop its own ICT strategy and tools.

In 2009 the OPPD was also actively involved in the organisation of the WePC 2009 which took place in November at the US Congress. The EP sent a senior delegation including Vice President Wallis to the November 2009 event. The OPPD also facilitated the participation of a number of its partner parliaments engaged in reviewing their use of ICT.

The OPPD is engaged in supporting the EP in its efforts to move democracy promotion further up the EU Agenda. Therefore in 2009 the OPPD was closely involved in the events organized by the Czech and Swedish Presidency who launched a joint cross-pillar initiative to increase coherence and effectiveness of EU democracy support and contributed actively to an EP input in the discussions.

World e-Parliament Conference

The 2008 World e-Parliament Conference(WePC 2008) took place in Brussels at the European Parliament on 25-26 November. The conference was organized by the OPPD in collaboration with the UN and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament. The conference brought together over 80 delegations or about 300 participants from legislatures around the world, including parliamentarians, legislative officials, and staff. Representatives of the academia, civil society, and international organizations also attended and contributed to the proceedings.

The WePC 2008 leveraged the growing base of knowledge in this field and strengthened the capacity of all parliaments to address the challenges of the 21st century information society. It was also an opportunity for the EP to present some of its flagship ICT tools such as Webtv, Voxbox etc to parliaments from around the world.

The EP has as the democratic pillar of the EU underlined the paramount importance of democracy promotion and human rights in its external relations as stated by President Buzek in his inaugural address:

In this context the EP decided to take a pro-active stance and adopted a resolution on Democracy

Building in external relations on 22 October 2009. The resolution had been drafted with the support of the OPPD and contained concrete suggestions to the Council and European Commission.

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Both EC and the Swedish Presidency commanded the EP for its resolution as a useful input to Council discussions and Council Conclusions which were adopted on 17 November 2009.

The resolution suggested amongst others 'that the Commission should systematically include a section on the state of democracy and human rights in the Country Strategy P a p e r s , and, wherever appropriate, mainstream democracy support in programmes with partner countries'; and 'the need for EU democracy support to be comprehensive, and to take a long-term approach in its delivery'.

The EP resolution also underlined the importance of systematically integrating support to political society (parliaments and political parties) in EU democracy building efforts (Article 21) and the need to see electoral assistance and election observation complemented with comprehensive democracy support and in particular the representative institutions emanating from the elections (Article 18 and 19).

All important suggestions of the EP resolution have in one or another way been taken up in the Council Conclusions, not least also the proposal for an agenda of action. While the initial aim was to come up with an EU Consensus on Democracy support, this has not materialized. However, for the first time the EU has now made an overt and dedicated statement on itsunified commitment to supporting democracy in its interactions with the outside world and emphasized amongst others 'the need for

increased coherence, complementarity andcoordination throughout the full range of actions in support of democracy: among different actors as well as thematic and geographical instruments for democracy support.'The OPPD will be organizing in 2010 a round table with relevant MEPs and other actors to review the Council conclusions and discuss next steps and a further EP contribution.

In line with the EP resolution's request to complement election observation with amongst others support to the representative institutions the OPPD and EOM unit have established close collaboration. The OPPD is contributing to EP EOM work, through its participation in EOM and through the regular contribution of background notes on the representative institutions for the various EP EOM delegations.

Furthermore the OPPD participated in a number of conferences, events and trainings on the subject of EU Democracy support and was involved in the Global consultations on the EU´s role in democracy building conducted by the International IDEA for the Swedish Presidency and which has been published in the form of a report entitled 'Democracy in Development'. It is worth noting that in the framework of its collaboration with the European Commission the OPPD is now actively contributing to a democracy support training for EC Delegation staff that takes place about twice a year.

Supporting EP Democratic Scrutiny of EC external assistance instruments

The OPPD has also been contributing, in close collaboration with AFET, DEVE and DROI Secretariats, to the EP democratic scrutiny of EC democracy support through its engagement in various EP working groups which have been created to monitor EC external assistance instruments.

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4. Fostering Research

The research and study of parliamentary practices has so far not received enough attention by either academics or parliamentary practitioners. The OPPD aims at fostering this research, whether in house or through outsourced experts. The OPPD plans to publish a series of papers which would cover subjects related to democracy promotion and functioning of parliament.

The OPPD has so far published following papers and is in the process of finalizing a series of others:

Strengthening Parliaments Worldwide, September 2009

Democracy Revisited: Which Notion of Democracy for the EU's External Relations?, September 2009

EU Democracy Assistance in EU External Relations, December 2009

A series of publications on subjects of direct relevance to parliamentary operations covering following subjects: Electoral systems, Parliamentary Rules of Procedure, ICT and Parliaments, Codes of Conduct and Political Groups. All papers are currently being drafted and will be published during the first trimester of 2010.

A Practical Guide on the organizational structure and administrative operations of the European Parliament is also currently being finalized.

5. OPPD Communication and outreach

The OPPD has in a first stage been elaborating a number of communication tools (Internet www.europarl.europa.eu/oppd and Intranet http://www.epintranet.ep.parl.union.eu/intranet/ep/lang/en/content/parliamentary_life/delegations/pid/8420 ), a number of flyers and an information kit. It has been making a number of presentations within the House for relevant Members (Chairs of Delegations, Committee Chairs, etc), EXPO and IPOL Officials. Delegations, as well as EP EOM, have been promoting OPPD in their contacts with parliaments from outside the EU. The OPPD has also been presenting its services at a number of meetings, events and conferences such as JPA EU-ACP, Democracy support conferences or EC training on electoral assistance, etc. It is worth noting that the OPPD has also been invited to present its work and exchange views with the DEVE Committee at the beginning of 2010.

6. OPPD Budget and staffing

In parallel to its creation through the June 2007 Bureau decision it was agreed to have a dedicated EP budget line 323 'relations with third countries and support for parliamentary democracy' to support the OPPD undertakings. The bulk of the funding is channelled towards the support given to partner parliaments (fellowships, study visits, technical assistance) and the development of practical tools and research.

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The increasing use of the budget appropriations, nearly doubling every year, is a clear evidence of the success of the OPPD and clearly supports the view that the 2007 Bureau decision to create the OPPD was not only appropriate but also very timely, and has enhanced the standing of the EP in many NED countries.

Over the last two and a half years, the OPPD has been struggling to satisfactorily cope with its mission as the agreed staff allocation, enabling it to function properly and to honor its democracy commitment in all parts of the world, has not been respected. This absence of a minimum staff establishment plan has respectively impacted the OPPD capacity to react favorably to various parliamentary requests for support, to cover parliaments in Asia and Latin America, to respect

to respect policy instructions agreed by EOM or Plenary or to offer as much support to NED parliaments as desirable. Experience of working with concrete projects has also confirmed that, precisely due to the lack of technical capacity in the parliaments concerned, working with NED is very time consuming and the minimum establishment plan initially foreseen in 2007 (3 AD - 2 AST) would have proven to be insufficient even if it had been executed, quod non !

This staffing situation must accordingly be reviewed if for 2010 further progress can be achieved.

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