Euro-reporters.com, Belgium
June 16 2005

Democracy’s temperature
Written by David Ferguson in Brussels
Thursday, 16 June 2005

“This year’s ‘Nations in Transit’ study makes clear that citizens
in the former Soviet countries have what it takes to make their
countries democratic,” said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of
NGO Freedom House. The organization’s annual study on ‘freedom’ in
the world, presented yesterday in Brussels, bandies the prospect of
‘a new wave of democratic expansion in the post-Soviet environment’.

“Ukraine’s extraordinary return to the democratic path in 2004
confirmed the potential for the peaceful spread of liberal democracy
and free markets to former Soviet countries still suffering under
corrupt and authoritarian regimes,” said Windsor, head of the US
government-funded NGO. Bosnia-Herzegovina also notched up a ‘best
improvement’.

“The fate of Russian democracy has enormous implications, both for the
former Soviet region and globally,” continued Windsor. “The fact that
democracy has failed in so many countries of the former Soviet Union
is due in part to the increasingly authoritarian Russian example. The
US and Europe should press Moscow to play a constructive role in
supporting democratic practice both at home and abroad.”

Freedom House gave top marks to eight Central and Eastern Europe
countries that joined the European Union last year. The Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia
continued to show strongest overall performance in areas like electoral
process, civil society, independent media, governance, corruption,
and judicial framework and independence.

“With the stakes so high, the transatlantic community must renew
efforts to support good governance, independent media, civil society,
the rule of law, and free and fair elections in the former Soviet
states,” noted Jeannette Goehring, editor of this year’s study. “The
community also must devise new strategies to deal with governments
that are increasingly consolidating authoritarian rule and give
assistance to countries that previously may have been overlooked.”

According to the US-based NGO, Western Balkan countries Albania,
Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia-Montenegro
(including Kosovo) face “the most substantial challenges of democratic
consolidation in the Balkans”. At the presentation in Brussels,
Jasna Jelisiæ, journalist at Sarajevo-based weekly Dani, said Balkan
countries are “only halfway down the road to joining the European
community of democratic nations”.

“Although much remains to be done, the events of 2004 demonstrated
that the European integration process is having a major positive
impact on democratic consolidation and stability in the Western
Balkans and is giving hope to people for the future,” said Jelisiæ,
who also advised on the study.

Freedom House calls on US and EU governments to provide greater
incentives for countries like Moldova whose leaders have,
according to the NGO, “a desire for greater integration with Western
democracies”. Freedom House also wants new strategies to deal with
authoritarian regimes in Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Uzbekistan.

Largest declines in democracy were seen in Russia and Azerbaijan,
as well as ‘disturbing’ deterioration over the past two years
in Armenia. “In Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev’s efforts
led to declining ratings for electoral process, civil society,
independent media, and judicial framework and independence. Russia’s
more substantial declines occurred in the categories of electoral
process, civil society, independent media, and judicial framework
and independence,” noted Freedom House.

–Boundary_(ID_TY1+IglVlO1wnaAwib5ubw)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress