European Partnership for Democracy
[1] EPD is composed of nineteen European organisations with activities in over 140 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.The newly joined countries had until then had little influence on European Union financial transfers claimed to promote worldwide democracy and human rights.[6] In his historical dictionary of democracy, scholar Norman Abjorensen writes that EPD "was set up to further European democracy assistance across the world, and has operated in about 140 countries, working with civil society organizations, faith-based organisations, media outlets, elections-management bodies, the private sector, political parties, elected institutions at national and local levels, and the security and justice sectors.[15] Former Spanish Primer Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero took notably part in an INSPIRED mission to Cape Verde in 2018 to promote the labour rights of women who work in the domestic service.The EPD secretariat is based in Brussels and is in charge of coordinating the 19 members, with the aim to further reinforce the cooperation between them and with the EU institutions, and to facilitate the achievement of their policy and programming goals.