On 11-12 May the meeting of the Working Group 1 “Democracy, Human Rights, Good Governance and Stability” will gather over 60 working group members from the Eastern Partnership and EU countries, as well as officials from EU institutions (the European External Action Service, the Permanent Representations, the European Commission and European Parliament).
The focus of the first day of the conference will be on the level of civil society engagement in the six EaP countries, in light of the recent developments in the region that seem to have put their role at risk. This opening session will be followed by internal meetings, covering the EaP CSF Regranting Projects 2017, CSF policy brief, the EaP Index and the reform concept of the Forum. A public event will close the first day, presenting the Transparency International Independent Defence Anti-Corruption Committee (NAKO) strategy 2017-2018 and its first report on corruption risks in security assistance.
The second day of WG1 Meeting foresees three workshops. The first one has been conceived as a training session focused on how to improve advocacy strategies, the second one is structured as a round table, aimed at exchanging lessons learned and thoughts on how to improve the members’ analytical and monitoring skills, while the participants of the third will have the opportunity to discuss the model law on protection of human rights defenders. The workshops will be followed by a closing plenary session and, after lunch, the meeting with EaP CSF 2017 Re-granting grantees will conclude the two-day WG1 Meeting.
Agenda
Thursday May 11, Thon Hotel EU, Rue de la Loi, 75
9.00-9.30
Opening session – Maria Golubeva, Haykuhi Harutyunyan, EaP CSF WG1 Coordinators
Opening remarks by Nils Jansons, Deputy Head of Division, Eastern Partnership, Regional cooperation and OSCE, EEAS
9.30-11.00: Public Session – Risks and opportunities for the civil society in the EaP countries
- MEP Rebecca Harms, Co-President, Euronest
- Dirk Schuebel, Head of Division, EaP Bilateral, EEAS
- Haykuhi Harutyunyan, Protection of rights without borders, Armenia
- Anar Mammadli, Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, Azerbaijan
- Ulad Vialichka, Eurobelarus, Belarus
- Yulia Tyshchenko, Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research, Ukraine
Moderator: Maria Golubeva
11.15-12.30 : Internal Session I – The EaP CSF 2017 regrating projects and EaP CSF Mission to Belarus
13.30-14.30: Internal Session II – The EaP CSF policy brief and the EaP Index
14.15-15.15: Internal Session III – World Café: defining priorities for Civil Society Declaration on Eastern Partnership Summit
15.30-16.30: Internal Session IV – Concept of the EaP CSF reform; Work in SWGs
17.30-19.00
Open side event on the TI Independent Defence Anti-Corruption Committee (NAKO): How can security assistance contribute to defence reform in Ukraine?
Friday May 12, Thon Hotel EU, Rue de la Loi, 75
8.30-9.30: EaP CSF Working Group 1 Council breakfast meeting
9.30-12.30: Break-out workshop I – Advocacy
9.30-12.30: Break-out workshop II – How can external monitoring contribute to reform?
9.30-12.30: Break-out workshop III – Enabling environment for civil society – how to improve the situation in the EaP countries?
12.30-13.00: Closing session
14.00-14.30
Meeting with EaP CSF 2017 Re-granting grantees – EaP CSF Secretariat and the grantees, Lunch area, Thon Hotel EU
You can find the whole agenda here
