Georgian civil society calls upon EU for more inclusive dialogues
Since
Georgia's peaceful Rose Revolution in 2003, the country has found itself
solidly backed by the European Union in its effort to build a better and more
democratic society. With the support of the EU and other international actors,
the Georgian government has been able to transform a disfunctional state system
into a more modern and effective administration, and managed to successfully
boost economic growth and reduce petty corruption. Throughout this reform
process, the European Union has proven itself to be an active and committed
partner, by providing extensive support programmes to the government and civil
society, and by defining guiding principles for the reform process via the
European Neighbourhood Policy and later the Eastern Partnership.
Despite
these achievements of the first post-revolution years and the laudable support
of international actors however, significant democratic shortcomings remain
that need to be resolved if Georgia wants to truly become the well-functioning
democracy that it aspires to be. In particular, the political landscape is
still characterized by a distinct lack of trust and cooperation between
political parties and civil society. In a recent letter to the delegation of the European Union in Georgia, more than 30 of
Georgia's most active and established civil society organisations highlighted
this concern, and called on the EU to actively promote cooperation between
civil society and political parties:
"We are
deeply sure that the democratization process in the country, including the promotion
of fruitful dialogue between the government and civil society, fully
corresponds to the highest interests and willingness of our society intending
to actively participate in the building of a truly democratic welfare state ,"
the statement reads, continuing to stress that "We are hopeful that the
European Union will more explicitly and directly encourage the Georgian
government to meet its obligations assumed under the format of the
Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership and strengthen the
participatory and monitoring mechanism of the civil society of Georgia in these
processes."
It is
exactly the above issues that EPD's newly established Georgia programme for
2011-2015 seeks to resolve. Generously supported by the Dutch Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the programme is aimed at enhancing cooperation and
knowledge sharing linkages between civil society organisations and political
parties in Georgia. To realize these goals, we:
·
Organise
quarterly dialogue platforms on Georgia-EU integration, involving
representatives of Georgia's key civil society organisations and political
parties. The roundtables are moderated by international and local experts on
democratization issues and are aimed at promoting constructive dialogue and
cooperation between the participants on issues that are crucial to Georgia's
democratic reforms. The dialogue platforms are implemented together with
partner organisation New Generation New Initiative (nGnI).
·
Organise
quarterly dialogue platforms on Good Governance and Public Participation in
Policy Processes, involving representatives of Georgia's key civil society
organisations and political parties. The roundtables, which have very much the
same format as the roundtables on Georgia-EU integration, are aimed at
promoting Good Governance issues that need increased attention from political
parties and civil society. We organize them together with our partner
organization the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development
(CIPDD).
Press Freedom Consortium
EPD
works in Georgia as part of the Press Freedom Consortium (PFC), an alliance of
media freedom and democracy support organisations that are jointly implementing
a 5-year programme called "Press Freedom 2.0", funded by the by the
Dutch government. The programme aims to alleviate structural poverty by
enhancing the quality of media, improve democratic processes and strengthen
women, children and minorities by giving them a voice. In Georgia, the Press
Freedom 2.0 programme will be implemented by EPD and the European Journalism
Centre between 2011 and 2015, with the specific aims of:
·
Decreasing polarization by political dialogue
·
Increasing accountability mechanisms in line with the
Government`s Anti Corruption Strategy
·
Increasing media independence
In
addition to the abovementioned activities carried out by EPD, our partner
organisation the European Journalism Centre will work with its partner
organization the Georgian Intitute of Public Affairs (GIPA) to:
·
Build
the capacity of thematic journalism trainers at GIPA
· Publish
an ethics handbook for journalists
· Support
curriculum development processes at GIPA and local university journalism
programs
· Provide
thematic journalism workshops to individual journalists
·
Facilitate
the publication of investigative articles on governance issues, business news
EPD's
Activities in Georgia are implemented with support from the Dutch Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.