European Forum

Conference in Tirana on transparency and opnness in society and the role of political parties

Political Context

On 27th and 28th of September, the European Forum, in cooperation with Qemal Stafa Foundation and the Olof Palme Centre, organized a conference in Tirana on transparency and openness in society and the role of political parties, that play a crucial role in consolidating democratic regimes. They are responsible for management of government institutions, establishment of rule of law and regulations that enable economic prosperity. Political parties however, do not necessarily behave accordingly to what they proclaim. Party behaviour, externally and internally, is of crucial importance to reach strong democratic governance. Political parties should actively undertake necessary measures to establish strong political organizations which will be able to implement their party programmes after gaining governance. Political parties will need to come to terms with the fact that responsible behaviour will contribute to their own success as political actors and to further democratic development of their country. The main aim of the conference was, therefore, to discuss the role of political parties in societies and their own democratic functioning. As the Western Balkan countries face similar problems regarding this issue, our sister parties in the region and the EU have been invited to send their representatives to the conference. Another important aim of the conference is to bring the social democratic parties from the region and from the EU together in order to share experience and ideas about the topic of the conference.

Report

The conference was attended by our sister parties from Macedonia, Croatia, Kosovo, Slovenia, Serbia, United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and of course Albania. Furthermore, representatives from other social democratic parties from Albania and Kosovo, National Democratic Institute, European Parliament, Albanian NGO’s, Olof Palme Centre, Qemal Stafa Foundation and regional and topic experts participated at the conference (a total of 45 people). After the participants were welcomed by the European Forum and the Qemal Stafa Foundation, Edi Rama, the Party Leader of the Socialist Party of Albania and the mayor of Tirana addressed the participants. According to Rama it was a privilege to have this conference and the participants in Tirana. In addition, he praised the work of the Qemal Stafa Foundation as the foundation is very important for the development of the Socialist Party (SP). The main message of Rama was that in order to achieve real and total change, which will transform Albania into a EU country, it is necessary to change the political process. This process can only be changed if the political parties change. There is a lot of work that has to be done in this prospect, but the SP is putting a lot of good effort to achieve this. The party has transformed from a party on whose door the people had to knock in order to tell their problems to the politicians, into a party which knocks on the doors of people and really listens to their issues. This is very important in order to stimulate the dialogue between the party and the society and to become a party of all citizens. After all, the participation of citizens in the society and the political process is crucial for a successful transformation process. Furthermore, Rama added that the leader of the SP is elected by the members of the party, which is unique in the region.

The next speaker was Lisa McLean, Senior Resident Director of NDI. McLean presented an important theoretical framework, as she explained why it is crucial that political parties support openness and transparency in the society. Political parties could and should play an important role in this as they are a cornerstone of any representative democracy which fulfil several functions that no other national institution fulfils. They, for example, offer alternative public policy proposals that reflect citizens’ interests and preferences, they compete in elections in a bid to manage the institution of government and they mobilise voters behind a certain vision of national interests. Furthermore, McLean used a metaphor to describe transparency and openness as she compared it with letting the light in (transparency) and turning the light on (openness).

After the contribution of the two key-note speakers, there was room for some questions from the participants. Niesco Dubbelboer, Secretary General from the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), used this opportunity and asked how open and transparent the SP is concerning their party financing. Edi Rama answered that this is a big problem in Albania. It is very hard for opposition parties to get funds, as people want to stay anonymous or else they could be in danger if their name will be connected to opposition parties. People that are willing to support SP are afraid to be punished. This makes it difficult to be transparent about the funds. Dubbelboer argued that a first step could be taken by political parties by showing only how much money they are receiving and not from whom. This is, however, rather difficult according to McLean as people will become suspicious. If you say how much money you are receiving people will defiantly ask where this money is coming from. David Bowe, former MEP and Public Affair Consultant of the British Labour Party, added that party financing is not only a problem in Western Balkans but also in England where an “arms race” between parties how much to spend is taking place. Emina Abrahamsdotter, local programme coordinator of the Olof Palme Centre, asked if the implemented minimum of women participation in the party, namely 30%, means that these elected women really have power in the parliament. Edi Rama said/says that women participation in society and politics is really a problem in Albania. Communism was a tool to emancipate women but after its fall women participation was terribly backfired as old traditions, unpleasant and discriminatory towards women, became very important once again, especially in the rural areas.

(Internal) party democracy

After a coffee break the first panel discussion, on internal party democracy, started with a speech of Kristian Vigenin, MEP and vice-president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, on the importance of internal party democracy. Vigenin argued that the party structure and the way party policy is being developed and approved determine the internal party democracy. In addition, he noted that the leader of a party, participation of minorities, interaction of the party with the civil society and the ability of a party to involve sympathisers of the party is very important. Furthermore, the parties should use the democratic space the internet is providing to communicate with the people for example during a campaign. After these important comments, the chairman of the Alfred Mozer Stichting and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, André Gerrits, discussed the paradox of the importance of political parties to support transparency and openness of the society on one hand, and on the other hand the fact that political parties can be an obstacle to the democratisation process as they are not transparent and open enough. Furthermore, Gerrits asked the participants to which extent they think international organisations can be helpful in supporting openness and transparency of political parties? After these speeches the floor was open for comments, discussions and questions of which some are mentioned here:

The increased number of populist parties in Western Europe and the Balkans and the lack of internal democracy within these parties has been discussed. These parties often have no members and are not represented on a local and the European level. Marija Stambolieva, executive director of the Progress Institute related to the Macedonian Social Democratic Union (SDUM) argued that more centralised parties— with a lack of internal democracy— tend to do better in elections. Therefore it is important to find a balance between openness and the necessity of having party discipline in order to win the elections. The international Secretary of the Albanian SP, Arta Dade, commented that sharing of experience and ideas of international organizations and social democratic parties from developed democracies are very important. She added that it is difficult to find the balance Gerrits mentioned but that there are good hopes for the SP and Albania as Edi Rama has a strong card in his hands to transform Albania the way he has transformed Tirana. Milan Zivkovic, executive director of the educational centre Novo Drustvo of the Croatian Social Democratic Party (SDP), argued that we do not necessarily need more democracy in South Eastern Europe, but that we need better democracy. Goran Bogunovic, member of the executive council of the Social Democratic Union (SDU) in Serbia, wondered if fragmentation within the party is good for democracy or if it leads to chaos in the political system. In the end it was concluded that support from international organizations and social democratic parties, as they share their experience and support regional political coordination, is very important for the parties in the region. Kirsten Meijer, Senior Project Manager of the European Forum and the Alfred Mozer Stichting, argued that it is important to question what tends to be most effective in supporting democracy. Meijer added that the Alfred Mozer Stichting is sharing its experience with the partners and does not consult the social democratic parties in the region what they should do as these are the one and only real experts. According to Saimir Tahiri, executive director of Qemal Stafa Foundation, a network of social democratic parties in the region would improve the cooperation, communication and encourage the democratisation of the region and establishment of strong social democratic parties.

Party financing

After the lunch the second panel discussion, financing parties and campaigns, started. The financing of a party is important for the political development, party organization and local network. Peter Bohinec, executive director of the Slovenian education centre Kalandar Foundation of the Social Democratic Party, presented a short history of the Social Democrats (SD) in Slovenia. After a long difficult period SD had a tremendous success in the recent parliamentary elections on 21 September as they won the elections gaining one seat more in the parliament than the ruling Democratic Party of Slovenia (SDS). This is a great success at a time when social democratic parties are losing support in almost the whole of Europe. Bohinec also discussed problems SD had been facing concerning the financing of the party and stressed the importance of heaving a clear-cut separation between political parties and their foundations in order to make the financing more transparent.

Niesco Dubbelboer, Secretary General from the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), presented the framework of party financing in the Netherlands. He explained where and from who the Dutch parties get their finances, the flaws in Dutch legislation and the development of the new law for the regulation of party financing in the Netherlands. These presentations where followed by a discussion in which the representatives of the parties deliberated on the situation in their parties and countries concerning party financing. In Croatia, for example, there are no clear regulations regarding party financing. In the hope, in vain in the end, that other parties would follow the example, SDP had to say no to some individual denotations as they have decided to make all their sources of donations available for the public. Igor Jojkic, DS councillor in Belgrade, argued that in Serbia the parties control themselves when it comes to party financing which is not transparent at all. In Macedonia the country is in a constant election campaign as the government misuses public funds to promote themselves constantly. In Albania there is no law nor an institution which controls the public funding of political parties, let go the private funding, whilst in Kosovo laws on financing of political parties are UNMIK regulations. The second panel was ended discussing if trade unions should be allowed to finance political parties. Obviously this could result in dependence of political parties on trade unions, conflict of interests and perhaps to great political influence — pressure on parties to pass certain legislations—of trade unions. However, it was argued on the other hand that in some countries, such as Sweden, the Social Democratic Party was founded by the trade union and trade unionists. In this case it is not a problem that the trade union use the party to achieve their political goals as this was one of the reasons to the founding of the party and since the political interests of both are almost the same. Rob van de Water, political adviser of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament added the remark that influence on financing and spending equals control on the political party.

Responsibilities of parties in government and opposition

The first day of the conference ended with the discussion on the responsibilities of parties in government and opposition. Laila Naraghi, Member of the International Review Group of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, argued that there are three important words for political parties in the political jungle. These are aim, goal and groups. Political parties need to know what they want to reach, which is generally to change the society (aim), all their strive for, such as improvement in employment, equality, human an civil rights is their goal, whilst the groups they should focus on are members of the party, voters and all other citizens. It is the responsibility of political parties to bear these three things in mind and to be a reflection of the society they consider as ideal. The second speaker of the third panel was Gregor Niessen, Director of the One Europe Foundation and political consultant. Niessen deliberated on the importance of a ethical code of conduct for political parties and organizations. This code of conduct should consist of rules which will prescribe how to deal with gifts, invitations for dinners and candy trips politicians are offered and, in the end, fight nepotism and corruption within the political parties and the whole society. Most participants argued that in theory this is a good idea but in practice it would be difficult to implement the ethical code of conduct. Marija Stambolieva argued that politicians in Macedonia do not even obey laws, let go a code of conduct. On the other hand it was claimed that in Montenegro the politicians started to behave more ‘ethically responsible’, as the awareness has raised that political leaders and parties should set an example. This will create a sphere in which the democratisation process will speed up as the people would feel more free to speak up. Finally, the discussion ended with the comment that EU integration prospect for South-East European countries is very important for the development of the region and the democratization process. The EU should put the Balkans high on its political agenda.

On the second and final day of the conference, a workshop provided by Gregor Niessen was on the agenda. The workshop related to the presentation Niessen gave on the first day of the conference. The participants (20 people) had been put into four groups and had to give examples in which their integrity could have been put in doubt as they were, for example, offered gifts. Furthermore, the participants were told to think about how they should tackle the issue of integrity and to come up with ideas and rules which would protect the integrity of politicians and political parties. Many good examples and ideas were brought forward by different groups but the vision that it is very difficult to implement an ethical code of conduct for political parties in the region remained predominant with the participants. The exchange of knowledge and experience during this very interactive conference is important in improving the skills of the politicians on democratic functioning of political parties, internally and externally.

Media coverage

The conference in Tirana has been broadly covered by several media in Albania. The introduction speech of Edi Rama was covered on the Albanian television and several Albanian newspapers wrote articles about the conference. Furthermore, a national Bulgarian newspaper published a short article and a photograph of the conference.


Conclusions and recommendations

Political parties play a crucial role in the democratization and transformation process in South Eastern Europe. Therefore it is of vital importance that parties set an example when it comes to their internal and external behavior. Our social democratic partners in the region are well aware of this role and they show great commitment towards transparency and openness. However, the political environment in which they have to maneuver does defiantly not make things easier for them. For example, Edi Rama argued during the conference that by being fully transparent about the party finances, there is a risk of losing a great share of finances as people providing these funds would be in danger if their name would be connected to an opposition party. Despite this, social democratic parties should set an example towards people and other political parties by putting transparency and openness high on their political agenda and, with that, improving the quality of democracy. Furthermore, such conferences play an important role when it comes to exchanging information and sharing experiences between social democratic parties in the region and the EU and international organizations. In this regard it is important that such conferences contain a fruitful discussion which was the case in Tirana.