The European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity
General information and history
The European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity was founded in January 1993 by the social democratic parties and political foundations from EU countries. The first few years were mainly spent on establishing contacts throughout Central and Eastern Europe, development of relations and close cooperation and coordination with the Western European Foundations. In the following years the Forum expanded its activities. The network of contacts has reached all the countries of Central, Eastern, South Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
The European Forum is dedicated to support the transformation and democratisation processes in the above mentioned regions. By serving as a platform for co-operation between social democratic parties, organisations and personalities it aims to contribute to the development of (social-) democracy. The European Forum informs the international social-democratic movement on the political situation in the countries of Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe with an emphasis on the developments of social democracy. In addition, the European Forum co-ordinates projects in these countries.
The European Forum tries to analyse, learn and inform about certain countries, thereby improving knowledge and extending contacts. This information is published in Country Updates. The Country Updates are drafted by the project managers and interns, who bring the information up to date according to the political developments in various countries. The project managers are also responsible for the website and for the composition and distribution of the bi-monthly Newsflash.
A substantial part of the work of the European Forum consists in coordination of and cooperation with the Western European political foundations in Central, Eastern, South Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. The European Forum initiates assessments and projects in countries, where social democracy is still weak. In practice this means that the Forum organises each year several large international conferences and some smaller scale assessment visits and seminars.
Within the European Forum 12 social democratic foundations and 20 social democratic parties play an active role.
Steering Committee
The overall supervision of the activities is performed by the Steering Committee, which meets two to three times a year. The Steering Committee is headed by the President. The current President is Lena Hjelm-Wallèn.
Office
Until January 2002, the Forum was placed within the secretariat of the Party of European Socialists in Brussels. Since then, the co-ordination and daily work is being done from Amsterdam. From January 2003, the Alfred Mozer Stichting is responsible for the co-ordination of the European Forum and the implementation of the working program. The Alfred Mozer Stichting will stay responsible for the working program of the European Forum till 2007.
CEE Network for Gender Issues
In 1994, the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity formed a Women Working Group - in order to address the gender aspect of democracy building and the status of women in countries in transition. This Working Group initiated many activities and organised workshops and conferences all over the Countries of Eastern Europe (CEE) region – while working on a voluntary basis.
In October 1997 the European Forum decided to continue the work on these issues and to give it a more formalised structure. Subsequently, it was decided that the Working Group should be transformed into an international network, working as a part of the European Forum, called "Central and Eastern Network for Gender Issues", with an office in Budapest, Hungary. The new network started to work from the 1st of February 1998.
For more information see: CEE Network for Gender Issues
