Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum convenes in Batumi

Georgia’s Black Sea coastal city Batumi will host the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF) on November 20 and 21.

This will be the first time the annual meeting is held in Georgia.

CSF is an institutionalised policy forum where an exchange of ideas and best practices brings together partners from six EaP countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine - and the European Union (EU) with the common goal of expanding the European integration processes towards the Eastern Neighbourhood.

The Forum will be attended be Georgia’s newly appointed State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration David Bakradze.

The annual assembly in Batumi will focus on consolidation of the achievements made at civil society level and pave the way for new initiatives in light of a new regional context with Association Agreements in place in three EaP countries, the deteriorating human rights situation in Azerbaijan and the security challenges faced by the entire region.

The Forum is usually attended by high-level government officials from EaP countries and EU member states as well as representatives of EU institutions.

This will mark the sixth meeting of the Forum after being established in the wake of the EaP Summit in Prague in 2009. The annual gathering has taken place in Brussels (2009), Berlin (2010), Poznan (2011), Stockholm (2012) and Chisinau (2013).