Team Europe Democracy (TED)

The transformational potential:

The Team Europe Democracy (TED) is a global thematic Team Europe Initiative (TEI) launched in December 2021 to promote democracy and human rights worldwide. 14 EU Member States are involved in TED: Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. The objective of the initiative is to create a coordinated strategic European response in support of democracy that is effectively steered worldwide by the TED Secretariat, constituted of GIZ and Enabel staff.

By increasing the impact of some of the biggest supporters of democracy, TED has the potential to slow down democratic backsliding and leverage windows of opportunity for democratic progress.

The three pillars of the Team Europe Democracy Initiative:

The TED initiative has three main pillars:

(I) Research on democratic support best practices and policies

(II) TED Network (global level)

(III) Providing expertise on democracy support at the country level.

The TED Network:

The TED Network is the key output of TED. It will consist of EU Member States and their implementing agencies, EU institutions, as well as of Europe-based civil society organisations (CSOs) with global and regional outreach, think tanks, universities, research centers, existing networks and platforms engaged in promoting democracy and human rights worldwide. International organisations based in Europe and active in these fields will also be able to join.

The aim is to facilitate information exchange and strategic dialogue, promote peer learning, enhance cross-regional collaboration on democracy support and support joint initiatives on three thematic priorities.

The three priority areas:

• Accountability and Rule of Law 
• Political and Civic Participation
• Media and Digital.

Steering and operational structure:

• A Steering Committee, chaired by the European Commission’s DG INTPA, and consisted of 14 EU Member States and their implementing agencies, as well as of other DGs such as NEAR, provides policy steer and management.
• The TED Coordinator (DG INTPA) facilitates the financial resources for the operational structure of TED and oversees the work of the TED Secretariat.
• The Secretariat sets up and supports the TED Network. It is responsible for the overall knowledge management, for exchange with the research pillar and dissemination of data and research produced by the TED Network members. It coordinates activities and runs a pool of experts to support EU and MS democracy actions, at country level, in the area of democratic governance.
• The Secretariat also facilitates an online platform.