Democracy Day

   Score for Democracy 

On behalf of the European Union Delegation to Jordan, the EU-funded project “EU Support to Jordanian Democratic Institutions & Development (EU JDID)” celebrated the International Day of Democracy by organising a football cup on Saturday, September 16th, under the name of “Score for Democracy”.

The European Delegation to Jordan, the Ministry of Political and Parliamentary Affairs, the Independent Election Commission, the House of Representatives, Women National Team, the Consortium – led by the European Centre for Electoral Support, and media and civil society organisation actors all took part in a good-spirited fair-play competition.

The eight teams involved in the football cup gave a comprehensive picture of the interdependence between stakeholders involved in democracy support. The event kicked off with opening remarks given by his Excellency, Mr Firas Edwan, the Secretary-General of the House of Representatives, where he extended his gratitude to the EU Delegation for the efforts invested in supporting democracy in Jordan.

Mr. Ali Khalwaledeh, Political Adviser to the Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs, also remarked that sports is global and have many shared values with democracy, like promoting the culture of accepting the other. He also added that sports are one of the best ways to celebrate democracy as it promotes the justice and tolerance.

Before the matches started, Mr Ibrahim Laafia, the EU Delegation Head of Cooperation, welcomed and thanked all the participants for celebrating the International Democracy Day and the shared value of democracy in Jordan.

All the teams, losers and winners, showed their enthusiast sports-spirits throughout the matches, which ended with the winning of the Ministry of Political and Parliamentary Affairs team. However, in a democratic society, there are no losers or winners, just participants contributing to a greater good.

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The EU Funded Project “EU Support to Jordanian Democratic Institutions & Development (EU-JDID)” is part of the broader Programme “Enhanced Support to Democratic Governance in Jordan”. EU JDID which is composed of four components is managed by two entities, a consortium which is led by ECES and includes four European non-profit organisations: European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WfD), Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and French Agency for Media Cooperation (CFI), and the fourth components which is managed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID)