Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum
The Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum is 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 for NGOs from target countries but also from the EU to participate in this process and to become a partner to the governments and institutions.
The first Civil Society Forum was held
on November 16 and 17 with the participation of over 200 representatives of
civil society from EaP countries as well as EU Member States. A
one-and-a-halfday 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 not only
participated in the Forum but also held a preparatory meeting prior to this
event to unite civil society participants[1]. The
Forum itself is 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. As a first task the
Forum prepared recommendations which were presented at the meeting of European
Council of Ministers to be held in Brussels on December 8, 2009.[2] In this
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.
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.
During the forum, the EPD's programme manager for
the post-Soviet and Asia region, Kristina Prunerova, was elected by forum
delegates to become member of the Steering Committee and the coordinator of the
first working group on democracy, good governance and stability on behalf of
those civil society organisations participating in the forum that are based in
the EU.
The Forum's further work is now being elaborated by
the work of the Steering Committee which met on January 21 and 22 in Brussels in
which EPD participated via its Program Manager. The most important issue
discussed was the access to the multilateral platform and materials elaborated
there. Also the Steering Committee will start working on the format and
functioning of the Forum to present it to other participants. Several meetings of
the Steering Committee are envisaged during the year as well as work is
expected in a way of feedback from all the Forum participants. The Forum will
work along the thematic working groups but also on the level of national
platforms which are being facilitated by the national coordinators. The work of
the national platform will provide important input for the Eastern Partnership
- national platforms will be able to monitor both multilateral and bilateral
component of the Eastern Partnership and facilitate these processes - by
preparation of policy recommendations, monitoring of fulfillment of the
conditions, communication with the public about the Eastern Partnership which
covers basically all the negotiations and agreements between the 6 EaP countries
and the EU.
The minutes from the Steering Committee meeting
will be available on the Civil Society Forum website at http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/eastern/civil_society/index_en.htm
[1] http://www.epd.eu/homepage/outcomes-of-the-preparatory-meeting-for-the-eastern-partnership-civil-society-forum
[2] http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/eastern/civil_society/index_en.htm