Forum for the Future of Democracy 2011

‘The Interdependence of Democracy and Social Cohesion’

Closing session

Mr Joao Bosco Mota Amaral
Vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly

It has been a great pleasure for me to participate in this year’s Forum on the beautiful island of Cyprus. And it is a great honour for me to have the opportunity to say a few words at the closing session in my capacity as Vice-President of the Assembly.

Not only have the organisation of this session and the hospitality of our Cypriot friends been remarkable, but also the quality of the debates has been exceptional in both the plenary and the workshops: we have had the opportunity to exchange views in an open and direct way and the interaction between politicians, government and local government representatives, academics and representatives of the civil society has been most fruitful.

This is indeed the major strength of our Forum for the Future of Democracy, an initiative launched by our Parliamentary Assembly which was taken up at the Warsaw Summit of Heads of State and Government, namely that it brings together, on an equal footing, its four stakeholders: representatives of governments, parliaments, local and regional authorities and civil society.

And the subject of this year’s forum – the links between democracy and social cohesion – has proved to be both relevant and timely as the Secretary General of the Organisation said yesterday morning.

Discussions have shown that, on the one hand, our Assembly has already been at the origin of a number of ideas and proposals that are of particular relevance today, and that, on the other, our Assembly can and should take on its share of responsibility, together with the other pillars of the Council of Europe, in ensuring concrete follow-up to the conclusions.

For instance, a great deal of our discussions has been focused on the need to empower all members of society and enhance civic participation.

Let me recall that, in its biennial debates on the state of democracy in Europe, our Assembly has repeatedly stressed the need to enhance participation not only of citizens but more generally of people living in a country.

Thus, in last year’s debate, we clearly stated that the crisis in representation, accentuated by the current economic crisis, requires that the political relationship between society and the authorities must also be approached in a different manner from the traditional forms of mandate and delegation: without calling into question representative democracy, the Assembly believes that, as a complement to the latter, participatory democracy should be enhanced as a process in which all people are involved in the conduct of public affairs (TA KOINA) at local, regional, national and European levels. We have recognised such a right to participation as a human right and a fundamental political freedom, which of course entails certain responsibilities.

However, what has changed since last year is that the “political apathy” or citizens’ disinterest in institutionalised procedures of democracy which we had decried has now given place to numerous movements of civil society, which have brought people to the streets and “woken up” public or civic conscience. New or alternative forms of democracy have seen the light of the day largely thanks to social networks, which have amplified them, and various forms of e-democracy have been developed - a concept that has also been largely promoted by our Assembly. In parallel, several countries are now seeking to improve communication channels (including internet) between governments/parliament on the one side and people on the other, for instance, e-petitions in UK and in my home country Portugal.

I would like to stress that this is a positive development; although we do not yet really know where all this will lead us, we can at least be pleased that people now seem to be interested again in public affairs and seek to claim a fair share in decision-making, albeit through alternative channels!

Indeed, several participants stressed that people believe in and want more democracy, while at the same time expressing a certain mistrust in the ability of us, politicians, to represent their real concerns. And this is something that should give us, politicians, food for thought about our representative role.
Our discussions have also shown that introducing elements of direct or participatory democracy entails not only opportunities but also risks, including the risk of referring to the “people’s will” for legitimising steps or statements which are contrary to fundamental democratic principles, for instance xenophobic ones or hate speech. Our national parliaments should assess the pros and cons of introducing such elements in order to improve the quality of representative democracy and restore public trust in it. We can surely not go on ignoring the people’s wish to be heard!

We, parliamentarians, members of an Assembly which has often been called as “the conscience of Europe”, have also another responsibility: to protect our societies against the rise of populist movements, which is a kind of “collateral damage” of the economic crisis and the increasing lack of confidence of people in mainstream political party representatives.

This issue was raised during our discussions and I recall Ms Brasseur’s words when she stressed the need to protect our core values which are threatened by populists or extremists. I might add that these challenges will be covered by reports currently under preparation with a view to the Assembly’s debate on the state of democracy in Europe next year. So from that perspective too, this Forum is rather timely. Furthermore, these challenges will also be addressed in next year’s European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments under the theme “Is representative democracy in crisis?”

We have reasons to be optimistic, even if we are undergoing one of the worst crises in Europe since the end of the World War II: this optimism does not only stem from people’s desire to be more actively engaged in public affairs than in the past; it also comes from the Southern shore of “Mare Nostrum”, not far from where we are sitting right now. While we are questioning the quality and effectiveness of representative democracy in today’s Europe, people in Tunisia and Egypt gave their lives to get rid of dictators and are now struggling to build up democratic institutions, including a freely and fairly elected Parliament which will represent the people and not just some elites. And elsewhere in the Arab world people continue to fight for freedom and democracy.

The challenges our Tunisian and Egyptian friends are facing are huge and it would be naïve to believe that they have already succeeded in their endeavour. But we should not only bet on their success, we should also do everything within our power to ensure that we win our bet. We, in the Assembly, are thus offering a tool to the emerging democracies in the Arab world, our recently created Partnership for Democracy status. We have just heard the Palestinian Minister for Social Affairs talking about the granting of this status only a few days ago to the Palestinian National Council. A couple of months ago, we granted this status to the Parliament of Morocco. Tunisia could be the next on our list, Egypt will hopefully follow.

I trust that the conclusions of this Forum will prompt the intergovernmental sector of our Organisation to move more bodly towards associating, in one form or another, our Organisation’s neighbours, in particular in the Southern Mediterranean.

Let me conclude by recalling that much of what we discussed could be echoed in the future work of all four stakeholders - but also in the work of a new structure which the Assembly has been calling for over the last couple of years. This is the International Strasbourg Forum for Democracy which should embrace all the various Council of Europe democracy-related structures and activities.

As Vice-President of the Assembly I look forward to seeing this initiative materialise with the support of both our parliaments and governments.

I would like to thank and congratulate all participants in this year’s Forum and especially our Cypriot hosts who have been both efficient and effective and extremely generous in their hospitality.