NDSV's leadership group

Liberty, the Rule of Law, and Responsibility – the Guiding Principles of Liberal Democracy in Southeast Europe (Subregion Southest Europe)

The Foundation - a stable scaffold for liberalism

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom has been working in Bulgaria and Romania since 1990, and supported the long, difficult transition process, whose progress was greatly accelerated by our liberal partner organizations and led to the countries' accession to the EU on January 1^st, 2007. In the late 90's, the Foundation expanded the scope of its regional project by beginning work in Macedonia and Moldova. In all four countries, the projects' objectives are: one, to strengthen the position of the local liberal parties and NGOs and two, to support the liberal viewpoint during the development and consolidation of democracy, the rule of law, the market economy and civil society.

After EU accession, project activities in Romania and Bulgaria were restructured. Political consultations, training, dialogue and publishing activities were redesigned to assist liberal leaders, young politicians and civil society to overcome the long-lasting difficulties of adaptation to the structures and rules of the EU. The Foundation's definition of Europe was broadened to include Macedonia and Moldova, and the South East Europe subregion's network of liberal organisations developed via trans-regional activities and forums. The emphasis now is to ensure better participation by citizens in local government and the development of a new political and civil culture focused on European values. Ethnic tolerance and the successful integration of minorities into civil society are extremely important issues for all four countries.

The Road to Europe

Project Director P.-A. Bochmann speaking with Christian David, PNL, former Interior Minsiter of Romania, Vice-President of LI and Director of the Institute for liberal studies in Bucharest As the European Commission periodically reminds its two new member-states, Bulgaria and Romania must continue their efforts to overcome faults, especially corruption, in their political culture and the administrative and judicial systems. The Foundation is assisting in two ways; first, by supporting our partner parties and their youth organizations in making these topics an important part of the public debate, and, second, raising society's awareness of these topics by organizing events and authoring publications. These efforts also support the general idea of European integration.

The Foundation works with local liberal think-tanks to publicize the advantages of a free market economy in order to support the private initiative needed to create a growing economy whose prosperity is widely shared.

Liberal youth in Moldova by doing unconventional campaign While Macedonia and Moldova aspire towards EU membership, considering it the only route to a free and prosperous future, many more political and economic commitments need to be made before the actual accession process can start.

The Foundation is improving the democratic decision-making process of these two nations during the process of harmonization of their legislation and economies, through political dialogue, political training and political awareness activities, as well as making the work of local government more effective. Plans for future activities include regional forums in which experience will be pooled and liberal concepts such as the rule of law, political culture and effective administration will be discussed.

Better specialization of the liberal partners

The management of LDP in Macedonia is working on their future strategy, supported by the Foundation In order to build a more democratic and effective structure within the political parties and their youth wings, special training sessions are conducted at the sub-regional level to improve the abilities and competences of politicians and other influential people.

The new global political and economic environment is an important aspect of our project work to further develop organised liberalism. With this objective in mind, we continue with our efforts to help, through political education and advice, liberal parties modernize their organisation. Training sessions in liberalism and communication skills are designed to be both sustainable and sequential, extending up to the "master" qualification level.

Important tools for achieving project objectives include seminar courses, such as the Freedom Academy Southeast Europe, forums, publications of important liberal works in local languages, information trips to Germany and Brussels, international networking, as well as seminars and expert congresses in our own InternationalAcademy for Leadership or Internationalen Akademie für Führungskräfte (IAF).