Future of EU Eastern Partnership to be discussed at Eastern Partnership Civil Society Conference in Riga

On 20-21 May, the European Union's Eastern Partnership (EaP) Civil Society Conference will be held in Riga and attended by over 300 civil society representatives and experts from the EU Member States and EaP countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

During the conference, recommendations will be drawn up for the EU institutions and EU and EaP member state governments to propose more effective ways of achieving the Eastern Partnership's objectives.

The goal of the Conference is to help strengthen civil society and involve it in the planning and implementation of the Eastern Partnership policy. The staging of this event in Latvia, the country currently holding the EU Council Presidency, continues the practice initiated during the Lithuanian Presidency of organising a broad-scale Civil Society Conference in parallel with the Eastern Partnership Summit to discuss issues closely related to the themes of the Summit. The Civil Society Conference provides a platform for representatives of civil society, non-governmental organisations and think tanks to debate Eastern Partnership issues.

The topics to be discussed at the Conference include past achievements and current challenges facing the EU Eastern Partnership policy from a civil society perspective, possibilities for the EaP and the role of civil society in the process of strengthening regional security, and future topical issues of Eastern Partnership policy.

During the Conference, discussions will be conducted in working groups in which representatives of Eastern Partnership countries will deliberate on the topical questions of democratic change and necessary improvements in the EaP region. Particular attention will be paid to the issues of democracy, strengthening human rights and the rule of law, social and sustainability factors in the economic development of the EaP countries, and strengthening cross-border ties and the exchange of opinions.

Politicians and experts from EU and EaP countries will speak at the conference, which will be opened by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia, Laimdota Straujuma i.

The Eastern Partnership Civil Society Conference in Riga is organised in cooperation with the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, the Centre for East European Policy Studies and the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation, with the participation of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. The conference is supported by the European Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, the Secretariat of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Black Sea Trust, a Project of the German Marshall Fund of the US and the National Endowment for Democracy.