The Network

History

The “European Network of Political Foundations – independent actors in democracy promotion, development cooperation and political dialogue”  established in 2006 is a cooperation structure, serving as a communication and dialogue instrument between European political foundations and the Institutions of the European Union as well as civil society actors in the fields of democracy promotion and development cooperation. Further to that it provides services to its members to promote their integration into the respective programmes of the European Union.

The network presently counts more than 60 member foundations from 25 countries (within the EU and candidate countries) and is open to new members provided they meet the membership criteria as laid down in its working regulations. The members are close to the six major party families represented in the European Parliament belonging to the democratic spectrum but independent in their decision making and financing of international projects.

Since January 2009 ENoP is co-funded for three years by the European Union under the Budgetline “Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development”. The name of the project is “Strenghtening internal and external communication and cooperation of political foundations form EU-Member-States in Development cooperation and Democracy Promotion”.

Structure

The working structure of ENoP consists of three bodies: general assembly, steering committee and coordination board. The General Assembly meets once a year. The ten full members and sixe substitutes of the ENoP steering committee meet approximately six times per year on invitation of the coordinator. The minutes are distributed among the members in order to inform about the decision processes.
 
 The Network Coordinator Arjen Berkvens (Alfred Mozer Stichting/The Netherlands) and the Deputy Network Coordinator Andrea Ostheimer (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, /Germany) were elected for two years in October 2009. The registration as non-profit association took place in March 2008.

Objectives

The activities of political foundations in the fields of democracy promotion and development include public campaigning and awareness building, advocacy, and lobbying political institutions and decision makers in their respective home countries. The main focus, however, is on the implementation of democracy promotion and development projects with local partners in more than 100 developing and transition countries throughout the world.