Against the backdrop of the recently finished war in Nagorno-Karabakh, a severe political crisis in Belarus, and a number of important elections that have taken place in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine this event will focus on our shared aspiration for a truly multi-stakeholder engagement with empowered civil society at the core of the EaP policy to deliver meaningful results for people.

The European Green Deal is raising the bar for the EU and EaP countries alike for the new cycle, prompting us to discuss a number of issues: potential obstacles to better environmental protection and climate change mitigation in the EaP, the conditions necessary for the effective participation of civil society in green reform processes and addressing environmental challenges, and the support required in order to implement the green agenda in the EaP.  

At the end of this year dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we will look back at how the virus has affected CSOs’ operations and what effects it will have on the reform agenda. The Annual Assembly will explore how civil society responded to current challenges, touching on new developments in citizens’ self-organisation and the bottom up initiatives launched to help others and searching for ways to support and cultivate these newly-emerged enthusiasm and mobilisation to become a sustainable generator of societal changes in 2021 and beyond.