Dr. Kavinda Jayawardhana Calls for Stronger and More Transparent Political Parties at European Roundtable in Brussels

Gampaha District Parliamentarian Dr. Kavinda Jayawardhana addressed an international roundtable discussion held in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, under the theme “Political Parties Under Pressure – How to Strengthen the Resilience of Parties Against Malign Influence from Third Actors.”

The event was jointly organised by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP). Representatives of European political foundations, experts from European Union institutions and think tanks, as well as representatives from partner regions around the world, participated in the programme.

Speaking during the opening session, Dr. Jayawardhana presented a Sri Lankan perspective on the challenges faced by political parties in small democracies.

He highlighted Sri Lanka’s strategic importance due to its location at the heart of the Indian Ocean and said the country’s rich ethnic and religious diversity was one of its greatest strengths. He stressed that this diversity must be protected from those seeking to create divisions among communities.

Dr. Jayawardhana highlighted three key areas in which the resilience of political parties should be strengthened:

• Building strong party institutions rather than relying on individual leaders;

• Addressing misleading and emotionally provocative content spread through social media and artificial intelligence (AI), particularly content in Sinhala and Tamil, where fact-checking capabilities remain limited;

• Ensuring transparency in political party financing throughout the electoral cycle, rather than only during election periods.

Dr. Jayawardhana called on European partners to support strong party institutions, internal democracy, training and youth leadership.

He also called for assistance in developing fact-checking and digital literacy capabilities in local languages, and urged European partners to engage with countries such as Sri Lanka as genuine democratic partners.

Concluding his remarks, Dr. Jayawardhana said:

“Malign influence knows no borders. If we want resilient democracies in Europe, we must also help build them in the Indian Ocean region.”

The roundtable discussion was conducted under the Chatham House Rule.