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The European Union launched an ambitious programme of Eastern Partnership (EaP) in May 2009, which aims to strengthen the ties of the EU with six eastern neighbouring countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

One of the conditions put forward by the Member States was the participation of civil society in the process of the Eastern Partnership. Civil society and non-governmental organisations play a crucial role, within their societies, in providing policy input, following new initiatives and holding governments to account. They can be important actors in promoting democratic and market-oriented reforms based on shared values, such as respect for democracy and human rights, the rule of law, good governance, principles of market economy and sustainable development.

This participation will take the form of a Civil Society Forum (CSF), a gathering of representatives of civil society from EaP countries and EU Member States, which will follow the agenda of the EaP and will prepare its comments, input to discussion, recommendations and will also oversee the implementation of EaP agreements. The Civil Society Forum is a great opportunity not only for NGOs from target countries but also for those from the EU to participate in this process and to become a partner to the governments and institutions involved.

The first Civil Society Forum was held on November 16 and 17 with the participation of over 200 representatives of civil society from Eastern Partnership countries as well as EU Member States. A one-and-a-half day meeting was full of discussion on action that these representatives would like to take in order to help implement the goals of the Eastern Partnership, such as supporting democratic and economic reforms and advancement.

The EPD has been invited to participate in the Forum and also held a preparatory meeting prior to this event.

The Forum itself was divided into 4 working groups according to the division of the Eastern Partnership into 4 thematic platforms: democracy, good governance and stability; Economic integration and convergence with EU policies; environment, climate change and energy security; and contacts between people. The CSO representatives debated these issues and prepared their own recommendations and possible action. A steering committee of 17 representatives from both the EaP and EU states was selected to represent not only the participants at the Forum but also other CSOs that were not able to participate at this meeting but will be part of this wider process. Also, a fifth working group was created by the CSF which would focus on preparing the structure of the Forum in the upcoming months and this group will be led by the Steering Committee. The first task of the Forum is to prepare recommendations to be presented at the meeting of European Council of Ministers to be held in Brussels on December 8, 2009. The draft of the recommendations is available on the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum website and comments from Forum participants will be accepted until 24 November.

In their final declaration, CSOs expressed a wish to become the natural institutional partners of the EU institutions, Member States and the EaP authorities in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating of the Eastern Partnership programmes. This initiative provides an opportunity for the partner countries to integrate with European institutions by developing stable democratic structures, and by enabling stronger participation of civil society in areas such as human rights, electoral standards, media freedom, combating corruption, training and networking of local authorities.

The EPD programme manager for the post-soviet region, Kristina Prunerova, has been elected by the participants of the first working group on democracy, good governance and stability as a coordinator from the side of EU member states organizations. The main coordinator of this panel is Mr Siarhej Mackievic from the Assembly for Democratic Governance from Belarus.

At the closing session of the Civil Society Forum the summary of recommendations was presented to Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the Commissioner of the External Relations, and Mr Carl Bildt, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, who then spoke on the matter.

Ms Ferrero-Waldner used the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain to strike a positive note, recalling how civil society in Europe had grown stronger since the events of 1989. She affirmed the EU’s commitment to CSO involvement in the Eastern partnership, stating in her speech that the Eastern Partnership could not reach its important goals of stability, security and prosperity without the participation of civil society and, most importantly, those from the Eastern Partnership countries, telling civil society to ‘be bold and innovative’ in its approach.. According to Mr Bildt, the Eastern Partnership is one of the most important policy priorities of the European Union. He would like to see civil society becoming part of all the stages of this initiative: development, implementation and monitoring.

http://www.eupd.eu/homepage/epd-at-first-eastern-patnership-civil-society-forum

Kristina Prunerova