The 5th annual meeting of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

CSF Assembly 2013 called “Together for a European Future” will take place on 4-5 October in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova.

The general assembly is a key annual event of the EaP CSF that brings together more than 250 representatives of the civil society organisations from six EaP partner countries and the EU, government representatives, European institutions and donor agencies to discuss the priorities of civil society and its contribution to the reform process within the EaP, reports  eap-csf.eu.

This year the general assembly will focus on the role of civil society in the context of Association Agreements to be signed with several of the EaP countries and civil society assessment of the reform process in the EaP countries in advance of the EaP Summit in Vilnius. During parallel sessions Forum delegates will also conduct debates on some of the priorities of the EaP thematic platforms and panels and the Forum’s flagship initiatives on election, media freedom and anti-corruption.

It is a tradition that the Commissioner Stefan Füle is opening the Forum with his welcome speech.

Within the framework of the meeting, among other issues visa liberalization process will be discussed. As it is said in the draft agenda to the conference, 2014 year may bring a breakthrough for EaP visa liberalization process as far as Moldova has a chance to be first finalizing its work within Visa Liberalisation Action Plan and secure visa free travel to the EU for its citizens, whereas Ukraine and Georgia are slightly behind trying to catch up. Armenia and Azerbaijan launched Visa Facilitation Agreements with the EU, while Belarus enjoys just “informal facilitation”.

Andrei Yahorau, the head of the Center for European Transformation, is among the speakers who open the discussion “Civil society in the context of Association Agreements: before Vilnius and after”.

The opening remarks to the presentation of the findings of the EII and Road Map Monitoring on the reform process in EaP countries in 2012- first half of 2013 list Dzianis Meliantsou, expert from the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, among the reporters.

Let us also recall that during the Forum the elections of the new National Coordinator of the EaP CSF of Belarus. For now this position occupies Jaraslau Bekish, elected by the Belarusan delegation during the Civil Society Forum in Stockholm.

The draft agenda of the Forum meeting is available here.