Ahmad GULIYEV, PhD in History,
Chairman of “Development in Science and Education” NGO,
Deputy Director of Ganja Euro-Atlantic Information Center
ahmadguliyev@yahoo.com 

New Platforms for Cooperation between Civil Societies in the European Union and the Eastern Neighbours

 (The Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum and EU-Russia Civil Society Forum)

 The Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

In its Communication on the Eastern Partnership of 3 December 2008 the European Commission (EC) proposed “to establish an Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum to promote contacts among CSOs and facilitate their dialogue with public authorities”[1]. The Eastern Partnership Summit on 7 may 2009 endorsed the Commission’s proposal and in joint declaration invited “the European Commission to develop and propose modalities for the establishment of a Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership”[2].

The European Economic and Social Committee in its opinion adopted on May 13 2009 on “Involvement of Civil society in the Eastern partnership” very positively welcomed the EC proposal to establish an EaP CSF and expressed its wish to be given a key role in this initiative, building on its important experience and know how. It suggested that the CSF could meet at least once a year and set up working groups to address specific issues at the level of the panels of the EaP. The CSF would also be given the possibility to “draft proposals and recommendation for EU representatives and partner country government”[3].

 To ensure the transparency of the process leading to the establishment of the EaP Civil Society Forum (CSF), all interested parties were invited to provide their opinion via links on the web sites of EC/External Relations and of the EC delegations in partner countries.

The mandate of the Civil Society Forum is to work on the Eastern Partnership process by influencing the decisions of the EU institutions and national governments to take into account the recommendations of CSF. This will be done with the support of a broad civil society from both EU and Partner countries.

Thematic working groups were established reflecting the priorities of the EaP multilateral track, i.e.:

1.      Democracy, good governance and stability

2.      Economic integration and convergence with EU policies

3.      Environment, climate change & energy security

4.      Contacts between people.

On 29 June 2009 the European Commission invited interested parties, i.e. grass roots organisations, trade unions, employers' organisations, professional associations, NGOs, think-tanks, non-profit foundations, national and international CSOs/networks and other relevant Civil Society (CS) actors, to submit their expressions of interest to participate in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Civil Society Forum (CSF).

The EaP’s Civil Society Forum was convened twice – in Brussels in 2009 and in Berlin in 2010. It already has organisational structures and established work procedures. Once a year, a plenary meeting of the Forum is held. As mentioned above, the work is divided into four thematic platforms (Democracy, good governance, stability, border management; Economic integration, convergence with EU policies; Energy, climate change, the environment; and Contacts between people). Furthermore, meetings of the Steering Committee are organised four times per year, and the working groups once per year. In 2010 a website for the CSF was launched. More importantly, the Forum has led to the creation of national NGO platforms in each of the EaP countries. The Forum aims to become an institution operating on a regular basis and with stronger links with the thematic platforms and flagship initiatives.

The third meeting of the EaP CSF will be held in Poznan, Poland, on 28-30 November 2011 under the auspices of the Polish presidency of the EU Council creates an especially high level of expectations among the stakeholders, in view of the fact that Poland has been one of the key actors in launching the EaP initiative and its development is one of the priorities of the Presidency.

The overall assessment of the Forum, both of its concept and its functioning is positive. The Forum gives an open channel for the permanent inclusion of civil society expertise and views in the Eastern Partnership process, enriching the governmental track with alternative views and recommendations.

At the same time a number of challenges related to the Forum’s institutional set up and working methods need to be addressed. Its impact on government platforms is below expectations. The very restricted access to information on government platform activities as well as limited access for the Forum’s representatives to government meetings limits significantly the Forum’s opportunities to exercise any influence[4].

EU-Russia Civil Society Forum

The EU-Russia Civil Society Forum was founded on 28-29 March 2011 in Prague by 57 representatives of the civil societies of Russia and 16 EU member states[5]. The idea to establish the EU-Russia Forum was initiated in 2009. In autumn 2010, a position paper by Russian CSOs on the issue of establishing the Civil Society Forum was published, defining a bottom-up approach and non-institutionalisation as key features of the future platform. The document also mentioned the need to co-operate closely with the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum in the belief that no dividing lines should be drawn across Europe[6]. The second meeting of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum is planned to be held on 1 December 2011 in Warsaw.

The Forum serves as a permanent framework for interaction and exchange between civil society organizations from countries of the EU and Russia and for their influence on and dialogue with the EU and Russian public authorities and other European and Russian partners. 

Four working groups were established:

1.      Human Rights and the Rule of Law

2.      The Environment

3.      Social Issues and Civic Participation

4.      Democratic Structures and Processes

Similar to the EaP CSF, a number of sub-groups are planned, e.g. one on co-operation between the EU and the Russian government on human rights and the rule of law. Another one will be a joint project on Belarus and the wider Eastern Partnership issues.

There are some differences between EU-Russia CSF and EaP CSF. According to the Charter of the Forum adopted at the founding meeting in Prague on 30 March 2011, The Steering Committee (highest decision making body of the Forum between the General Assemblies) will have a minimum 8 and maximum of 14 members, half from the EU and half from Russia. The EaP CSF Steering Committee includes 7 EU representatives and 10 EaP country representatives, but a key difference is that the new forum launched in Prague is explicitly an "EU-Russia" civil society forum. 

According to Charter of the EU-Russia CSF, exclude employers' organisations and trade unions are excluded from membership of the Forum; however no such exclusion exists in the EaP civil society forum. Membership in EU-Russia CSF is valid for 5 years and may be extended upon the member’s application submitted six months; however the selection of the participants to the annual meetings in EaP CSF is conducted yearly and any given CSO from an EaP country or EU member-country can take part in only three CSF annual meetings in a row.

In conclusion it should be noted that, there is a need to create permanent dialogue between the EaP Civil Society Forum and EU-Russia Civil Society Forum to develop larger platform for interaction and cooperation between civil society organisations as well as promote people to people exchanges.

References