EU Liaison
International IDEA is a trusted partner of the European Union in support of democracy within the EU and globally. At its liaison office to the EU in Brussels, International IDEA fosters the partnership with EU institutions through relationship building, advocacy for democracy policy and programming, representation of global and country programmes, showcasing knowledge resources and EU resource mobilization.
Our key goals are to impact EU decision-making and contribute to increasing the EU’s global footprint on democracy in collaboration with democracy organizations based in Brussels and Europe and to increase International IDEA’s visibility in EU institutions and their decision-making bodies.
In addition to the in-country support programmes, International IDEA implements several global and regional programmes in collaboration with the EU.
The EU Liaison team focuses on:
- Improving and supporting the implementation of the EU’s external democracy policies (e.g. the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, Council Conclusions on Democracy, Gender Action Plan, Youth Action Plan).
- Improving the EU’s internal democracy policies (e.g. Code of conduct for the 2024 European Parliament elections, European Democracy Shield, EU Defence of Democracy Package, EU Regulation on online political advertising).
- Convening democratic institutions from EU member states to exchange approaches to democratic innovations, such as cybersecurity in elections, political finance and the use of ICT by political parties.
- Facilitating visits to Brussels of International IDEA's regional and country programmes and their contacts with EU institutional actors.
- Supporting Team Europe Democracy.
- Shaping the international infrastructure on democracy and Summit for Democracy.
- Supporting rotating EU Presidencies on the EU's democracy agenda.
Offices
Updates
Publications
Events
Updates
Our experts
Sam van der Staak
- Director for Regional Europe
Director for Regional Europe
Sam van der Staak is the Director of International IDEA’s Regional Europe Programme. His work focuses on responding to democratic developments in Europe, with a special emphasis on the topics of political parties, money in politics, and ICT in…
Marilyn Neven
- Head of EU Liaison
Head of EU Liaison
Marilyn Neven is Head of EU Liaison at International IDEA. Her main role is to reinforce International IDEA’s relations with the European Union as a key partner of International IDEA. Through her work on advocacy for democracy and fundraising, she…
Charles Brasseur
- Programme Manager - EU Liaison
Programme Manager - EU Liaison
In his current capacity as Programme Manager - EU Liaison, Charles engages daily with the EU institutions on various democracy advocacy and fundraising activities. He also oversees the coordination of EU-funded programmes implemented by…
Social media
Offices
Europe (Brussels)
Sam van der Staak
Director, Regional Europe Programme
Brussels, Belgium
