Eastern Partnership Think tank forum 2017

About the EaP Think Tank Forum

The EaP Think Tank Forum (Chișinău, September, 22 2017) is an initiative of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), the Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies (GISS) and New Europe Center (former Institute of World Policy (IWP)), implemented in cooperation with the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF), funded by the EU and National Endowment for Democracy (NED) from the EaP CSF re-Granting Scheme 2017 and co-financed by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). The overall aim of the Forum is to better connect Think Tanks across Europe for a maximum impact on their research, policy making and advocacy effort in promoting Europeanisation. The EaP Think Tank Forum will offer the opportunity to further discuss and review the proposed draft Policy Recommendations for the EaP Summit in Brussels with a group of over 60 leading experts representing the think tank community from the EU and Eastern Partnership countries aiming at bridging the local, regional and European perspectives in addressing the current challenges and future perspectives of the EU’s Eastern Partnership policy. Thus, the Forum address the following issues:

1. Bridging Think Tanks in Europe – A way forward – What are the best practices and lessons learned offered by existing think-tank partnerships in Europe on the regional and/or European levels (i.e. EU Black Sea, Visegrad, Baltic and Western Balkan regions)? What are the main challenges and opportunities to be addressed by the think-tank community from the EU and Eastern Partnership countries? How could EaP Think Tank Forum add value to the EaP Civil Society Forum in building capacity of policy research and advocacy activities? How to strengthen Think-Tank – NGOs partnerships?
2. The Future of Eastern Partnership: Challenges and Perspectives – The upcoming EaP Summit in Brussels will review the results since the Riga Summit 2015 and set up objectives for the future of the EaP. The ENP was reviewed in 2015. A new EU Global Security Strategy was issued in 2016, which also aims to strengthen resilience in the EaP region. What are the main achievements and backlogs of the EU’s EaP Policy? What are the key internal and external challenges that EaP countries are facing? How these challenges could be addressed? What the EU and EaP countries should do to strengthen resilience and secure a sustainable Europeanisation process? What are the perspectives for the non-Associated EaP partners?
3. Eastern Partnership Deliverables by 2020 and Beyond – In December 2016 the European Commission and the EEAS has issued the Joint Staff Working document „Eastern Partnership: 20 Deliverables for 2020, which have been reviewed and approved in the meantime by the EaP Ministerial on June 19th, 2017. Are the suggested deliverables ambitious enough and are they sustainable, looking beyond 2020? Are they resonating with the expectations of the EU and EaP partner countries? Will they effectively address the current challenges of the EaP policy and strengthen resilience in the EaP countries
4. Reviewing the draft Policy Recommendations for the EaP Summit in Brussels – This will be the concluding panel of the Forum, which will build on the previous sessions and will provide for the opportunity to further discuss and validate the Draft Policy Recommendations for the next EaP Summit in Brussels. The results of the policy debates will be incorporated in the final Policy Recommendations, which will be further discussed in the framework of the EaP CSF and promoted with the EU institutions, EU member states and EaP countries in due time before the Summit in Brussels.

http://www.ipre.md/eapttf2017/