Eastern Partnership is a European Union’s initiative aiming to improve relations with Eastern neighbors of the EU and continuing the Eastern dimension of the current European Neighborhood Policy. The Initiative is rather young (supported in June 2008), and therefore the public sector has not yet built a clear notions about it and objectives for themselves in the space of the Eastern Partnership. PAUCI’s project “Strengthening the Capacity of NGOs in the EU’s Eastern Partnership” is special because NGO representatives had an opportunity to visit partner organizations and build a strategy (which is based on general principles of partnership and own intuition) for cooperation according to the needs of Eastern European and Eastern countries.
On the interns’ opinion, the Eastern Partnership initiative significantly expands opportunities for NGO representatives from the former CIS countries to learn about good practices in neighboring countries. The program also contributes to improving EU relations with post-Soviet countries. A valuable outcome of the visits was experience exchange, clearing the ways of forming the public opinion, mechanism of collaboration with local authorities through the effective and positive dialogue, establishing closer contacts between NGO representatives, and involving civil society in the Eastern Partnership processes.
According to the feedback from participants, internship programs were intense and enabling establishing personal contacts between representatives of four countries of the Eastern Partnership. Participants made a comparison of levels of democracy in the countries, exchanged experience, assessed the work of private companies, defined the priorities of international organizations, and initiated detailed research of overall Eastern Partnership prospects. Effectiveness of internships is also reflected in the drafted international projects: European Parades on the Days of Europe, development of agro and ecotourism, creation of an international organization "East Youth Partnership”, joint resolution on the gas conflict with Russia. Memoranda of cooperation between organizations of the Eastern Partnership and a letter on initiation of NGO Assembly of the six countries were signed, etc.
PAUCI project is at the final line. But two more internships are planned for the September (for Moldova and Belarus), and much work related to Eastern Partnership Initiative implementation.
