Some history or Forum background

Minsk, 7 December 2009

 To the attention of

The first meeting of Civil Society Forum has taken place in Brussels 16-17 November 2009. Forum became the first precedent when civil society participates as institutional partner in relations between European commission and national governments of the countries participating in The Eastern Partnership initiative. The Forum has adopted recommendations to EaP actors and made decision about making Civil Society Forum permanently working. For further development of this idea as well as coordinating all the efforts there has been established Steering Committee of CSF that consists of 17 Civil Society representatives from EU and EaP countries.

Recommendations adopted by the Forum and finalized for presenting them at Foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on December 8, 2009:

Recommendations of Working Group 1 "DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, GOOD GOVERNANCE and STABILITY"
Recommendations of Working Group 2 "ECONOMIC INTEGRATION and CONVERGENCE WITH THE EU POLICIES"
Recommendations of Working Group 3 "ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE and ENERGY SECURITY"
Recommendations of Working Group 4 "CONTACTS BETWEEN PEOPLE"

Members of the Steering Committee of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum elected during the meeting on 16-17 November
Draft proposal on the structure of the Steering Committee

For further details, please, see official website of the Civil Society Forum

Prepared by: Rena Safaraliyeva, Transparency International Azerbaijan

Jana Kobzova, PONTIS Foundation, Slovakia

 FINAL COMMUNIQUE OF THE CONFERENCE

“Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership: An Agenda for Belarus”
2 November 2009, Minsk, International Educational Centre 

We, the participants of the conference “Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership: An Agenda for Belarus”, representatives of Belarusian civil society, commending the efforts of the European Commission in engaging civil society in Eastern Partnership Initiative (EaP)

Support the “proposals of Belarusian delegates to participants and organizers of the Forum” aimed at creating a procedural and institutional framework for the effective inclusion of civil society in cooperation among the partner countries and the European Union;

Declare our readiness to provide quality and competent expertise in developing and implementing projects of the Eastern Partnership in all thematic platforms;

Propose that the agenda of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership includes the following priority areas of work in each platform:

Recommendations from the Ukrainian delegation to the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, 16-17 of November, 2009, Brussels

2009 Strategy Paper 

Dear colleagues,

We cordially invite you to the conference “Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum: Agenda for Belarus”, which is to take place on November 2, 2009 in Minsk. The conference is organized in connection with the coming Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (16-17 November, 2009) and the invitation of the European Commission to a number of Belarusian civil society organizations to be part of it.

Conference invitation letter                    Conference program

Less than three month is left before the first meeting of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (the provisional date was selected as mid-November 2009). During this short period of time it is necessary to select participants of the Forum and to resolve the outstanding issues of institutional interaction between the structures of the Forum of the Eastern Partnership and the formal structures of the EU. Many acute problems in one way or another were resolved in the Concept paper of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership[1], which outlined the key objectives and activities of the Forum, set a framework for engagement for the Forum with the platforms and committees of the Eastern Partnership, pre-defined structure of the Forum. Despite of the progressive nature of the set mechanisms in the Concept Paper for the civil society of the Eastern Partnership participating states, there is still a number of unresolved or insufficiently transparent moments. Such as, above all, the issue related to the selection of participants of the Forum. The delicacy and complexity of these issues does not allow for hoping that an optimal solution will be found for all, however a satisfactory solution could still be found.

The Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies and the Brussels-based Office for Democratic Belarus present their new policy proposal ‘What Eastern Partnership Should Bring to Belarus’. This proposal is prepared in line with the request for opinions and proposals issued by the European Commission to civil society organizations with regard to the role of Civil Society Forum and the overall role of civil society in shaping the Eastern Partnership.