Eduardo Frei Foundation Public Conference in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands - 2 October 2009
ENoP with Mr. Aliaksandr Milinkevich, leader of the Belarusian opposition.
On Friday October 2, the Eduardo Frei Foundation, member of ENoP, organised a public conference in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. The theme of the conference was “Development co-operation and democracy promotion: democratisation in reverse?” Over 150 people gathered on Friday afternoon in Apeldoorn. The main speakers at the conference were mr. Wilfried Martens, president of the European People’s Party. Mr. Ben Bot, president of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and mr. Aliaksandr Milinkevich, leader of the Belarusian Movement for Freedom and former presidential candidate in the 2006 elections.
The plenary session was supported by workshops dealing with various topics. The workshops focussed amongst others on politics and state building in South-Caucasus, Latin-America, democracy in the new world order and the role of political compasses in election times. The speakers in the conference emphasised the need and importance of democracy, checks and balances. They also highlighted that the new institutions currently playing a role in global governance, have more players represented than former institutions have. It is time to rethink representation in global institutions.
During the whole conference, participants could gain information in the ENoP stand. Several banners were standing, showing projects in the field of democracy promotion. The ENoP implementation team was present to talk to people and answer questions.