EPD to represent Civil Society Organizations on Eastern Partnership forum
The EU's new Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum held its first conference on Nov 16-17. During the forum, the EPD's programme manager for the post-Soviet and Asia region, Kristina Prunerova, was elected by forum delegates to become 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 EPD has worked hard to ensure that civil society's voice is heard in the new Eastern Partnership and that its views, stemming from a vast wealth of collective experience, are fairly represented during Partnership discussions. Kristina will support Mr Siarhej Mackievic, who will take the lead role in coordinator.
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-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 (see article here).
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 (click here for access) 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.
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 (read or listen to speech here).
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.