Strengthening capacities of the National Platforms of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

Time frame: 1 December 2012 - 1 June 2014

Budget: EUR 1.016.690,-

The project “Strengthening capacities of the National Platforms (NP) of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (CSF)” is funded by the Civil Society Facility of the European Union.

The EaP CSF is involved in the country and regional activitites of the project and is represented in the Steering Committee of the project by three members of the Steering Committee of the EaP CSF and the Director of the CSF Secretariat.

The main objective of the project is to strengthen and promote civil society organisations’ role in reforms and democratic changes taking place in the EaP countries.

The specific objects of the project are:

Capacity building of the NP of the EaP CSF

Fostering active social dialogue between social partners as well as a civil dialogue between private, public and civil society stakeholders

Monitoring developments in the implementation of the goals of the EaP

Monitoring developments in EU relations with the Partner countries

The project will achieve the following results:

Stronger and more effective NP with increased policy capacity to provide well-timed, constructive contributions to the EaP intergovernmental platforms and expert panels.

Monitoring process of the EU engagements undertaken by governments of the EaP countries on issues related to human rights, justice, economic integration, environment and other issues.

Promotion of the EaP initiative in the six partner countries through information campaigns, public debates and discussions with participants of broader groups of the societies.

The activities of the project will be organised along two lines: regional activities involving all six NP (or a few of them) and country specific activities.

Within the regional activities four actions are foreseen:

“Media independence in EaP countries” envisions producing the assessment of media independence that can be a useful resource for the development of the reform policy in the information domain of the EaP countries. The assesment will serve as a logical continuation of an overview “Media Landscapes of Eastern Partnership Countries” produced in 2011. This work is crucial, as despite the paramount role of free and quality media in the whole process of democratisation and European integration, the problems of media freedom are not reflected in the current agenda of the EaP Platform I.

“Monitoring of implementation of commitments undertaken by EaP country governments through EaP processes (both bilateraland on a multilateral level)”. This monitoring will cover all major areas and a yearly report based on the monitoring results will be prepared and made available to EU institutions, national governments and the general public. The monitoring will cover the areas of all four thematic platforms of the EaP. Within the sphere of “Democracy, Human Rights, Good Governance and Stability”, monitoring will be conducted in the areas of election environment to ensure fair elections, of problems and challenges of local authorities with a special focus on decentralisation strategies implemented in the partner countries and of the implementation of the national anti-corruption strategies in Azerbaijan and the Republic of Moldova. In the area of “Economic Integration and convergence with EU Policies” the focus will be on the facilitation of social dialogues and the monitoring of the DCFTA negotiations. Within the domain of “Environment, Climate Change and energy security” monitoring will centre on the field of sustainable development, environment protection, energy policies and the challenges for the formation of sustainable energy systems. In the field of “People to people contacts” work will focus on the support of non-formal education and the involvement of youth in decision making at all levels.

The third action on “Policy Dialogues and Consultations” aims at facilitating the involvement of the members of NPs in different consultation processes and policy dialogues. As the CSF has a status of permanent observers in the official intergovernmental platforms of the EaP, the building of expert capacities is of utmost importance within this action.

The fourth action aims at increasing the awareness of the EaP and European integration and at promoting social dialogue in the partner countries.

The country specific activities focus on the strengthening of the capacities of the NP in each countries and its activities are tailored to the needs identified in each of the partner countries.

In the Republic of Moldova activities implemented focus on capacity building of civil society groups affiliated with the NP by organising trainings, information meetings and workshop in all districts of the country. This also implies the active participation of civil society organisations from Transnistria in the discussions. Furthermore trilateral meetings between the government, NP and the EU are envisaged to take place at least twice a year and a capacity building and awareness raising campaign on the DCFTA-negotiations between the EU and the Republic of Moldova is envisaged. Furthermore, cooperation between the civil society and social partners should be strengthened in the light of the new Working Group 5 of the EaP CSF.

In Azerbaijan capacity building and awareness raising campaigns on the country’s accession to the WTO are planned and the European Integration of the country is to be supported by the promotion of policy convergence in priority areas within the EaP. Furthermore, the support for the website of the NP, the holding of an online portal to promote information sharing and open trainings for civil society organisations are envisaged.

Concerning Georgia, the activities will aim at raising public awareness of the EaP, the Association Agreement and the DCFTA. Furthermore the capacities of civil society groups affiliated with the NP are to be increased through targeted trainings and workshops with a special focus on capacity building in the sphere of the DCFTA, the monitoring of EU budget support to Georgia, which will increase in the coming years, the monitoring of local governance and local authorities and the assessment of reforms for sustainable development and a green economy. A further area of activities in Georgia is cultural heritage and its protection.

In Ukraine capacity building for the NP will focus on the support of the secretariat of the NP and the organisation of a conference of the NP, which should bring together civil society organisations from all regions of Ukraine and establish a permanent constructive dialogue. Furthermore the organisation of an “Eastern Partnership School of European Integration” foreseen, which should provide trainings to civil society actors and acquaint them with the EaP and the possibilities for an active involvement of NGOs in it. Awareness of the society on the public involvement in the EaP should be risen and a dialogue for the implementation of the EaP roadmap, including consultations with interested parties and authorities and information on the roadmap implementation, started.

Support provided in Belarus will focus on the launch of a webpage for the Belarusian NP, the organisation of a national conference as one of the key-stones of the functioning of the NP and the raising of awareness of the European Dialogue on Modernization with Belarus in order to promote EU values. Furthermore, expert meetings on the EaP and the Dialogue will be organised and a regular monitoring of the development of the Dialogue conducted.

In Armenia the country specific actions centre on the organisation of at least one meeting of the working groups of the NP per year, the organisation of annual conferences of the NP and an awareness raising campaign in order to foster EU values, the economic, political and social development of Armenia in line with the priorities of the EaP and the need and prospects of modernization and reforms in the country.

The complete description of the project is available here.

Progress report (1 June - 1 September)

Progress report on the first six month of implementation