Visit from the Balkans

On Tuesday, 3 July, Foundation Max van der Stoel was visited by prominent members of social democratic parties from south-eastern Europe who were in The Hague for a working visit focused on political integrity, at the initiative of the North American National Democratic Institute (NDI). The SEE attendees included NDI staff, party workers, and councillors from local politics. Participants were from Kosovo, Croatia, and northern Macedonia, among others. 

The group was very interested in the topic of political integrity, as they often face challenges in their home countries around political funding, transparency, and declining voter confidence in political office holders. Thoughts were exchanged on various topics, including promoting van political integrity through trainings, the structure of confidants in political parties, and processes of candidate nomination in various elections. This is why they came to speak about this with Kido Koenig, the director of the FMS, Jacob Schaap, as internal confidant, and Joshua Paas, as official secretary of the candidate advisory committee. With them, they talked about the work of FMS, social safety and integrity, and ensuring integrity within candidacy procedures. 

The talks turned into interesting discussions in which different and valuable perspectives were discussed. Furthermore, potential future cooperation between the FMS and the parties and organisations that represented the SEE visit was discussed afterwards. All in all: an interesting and informative afternoon!