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EaP CSF Summit

Every year, the EaP CSF Civil Society Summit brings together EU and EaP civil society organisations and decision-makers in a unique forum. Together they discuss the future shape of the Eastern Partnership multilateral cooperation, the role of civil society and how to ensure its future resilience. 

The Civil Society Summit is open to all delegates of the EaP CSF. As its highest decision-making body, the Summit has deliberative, representative and elective functions exercised in line with the EaP CSF statutes. 

What people say

Daniela Mussnig

IZ – Verein zur Förderung von Vielfalt, Dialog und Bildung

The EaP CSF is an important platform to understand the regional dimension and current challenges of civil society and link them to the EU policies for the region.

The Civil Society Summit is unique in bringing together civic actors face to face – as organisation and individually it helped us to gain valuable insights for our work with EaP countries, connect with other stakeholders and start new partnerships.

Pavel Havlicek

Research Fellow at AMO, the Czech Association for International Affairs

For us in AMO, the Eastern Partnership and keeping strong people-to-people ties and civil society component of our cooperation has been one of the long-term priorities, particularly because we have been one of the founding organisations of the Forum in 2009.

Irina Sukhy

Project Manager at Ecohome

The shrinking space for civil society across many EaP nations makes it crucial for activists and experts from diverse backgrounds to unite in their efforts. Environmental issues transcend borders, and meaningful progress can only be achieved through collective action and shared expertise offered through events like the Civil Society Forum organised by the EaP CSF.

Igor Stukalenko

Head of Energy Programmes at CGS “Strategy XXI”

My organisation, CGS “Strategy XXI”, was invited as an expert to the Forum and participated in the EaP Energy Panel and the Eastern Partnership LNG Network. We were able to discuss with representatives of the European Commission, Energy community, Energy Regulator, operators of gas networks, storages and LNG Terminals, other business, embassies and academia from the EU, Eastern Partnership countries as well as from the US. This greatly contributed to the exchange of best practices and models and allowed us to be heard by all levels.

Olena Pavlenko

President at DiXI Group

The EaP CSF brings together people with the same values and principles, and it helps to find partners or even friends in the countries of the region. When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine happened, most of the EaP CSF colleagues provided enormous support to Ukrainians, and I will always be grateful to them for that. 

Tamara Malkova

Information Center “Green Dossier”

We are united with our neighbour countries by rivers, forests, mountains. And, like them, we have similar problems regarding climate change and nature protection. Participating in the EaP CSF and its events help us create joint policies for good environmental governance.

    The Next Summit

    The First EaP CSF Civil Society Summit (16th General Assembly) will be held in Vienna, from the 19th to the 21st of November 2024 

    Session Agenda

    Click on the event below to access the agenda of the next EaP CSF Civil Society Summit. 

    Summit
    2024 EaP CSF Civil Society Summit
    11/19/2024 – Vienna

    Ahead of the 7th EaP Summit, the first edition of the EaP CSF Civil Society Summit, following the tradition set by its preceding 15 Annual Assemblies, will bring together over 250 representatives from civil society organisations and decision-makers from the EaP and the EU to discuss the future of Eastern Partnership multilateral cooperation and the role of civil society therein.

    Civil Society Award

    Since 2018, EaP CSF has been presenting the Civil Society Award to celebrate the outstanding and courageous work of organisations from the Eastern Partnership region who are on a daily basis defending core democratic values, advancing democratic reform, contributing to the political, economic and social development of their countries, and helping people and communities in vulnerable situations.

    What our awardees think

    Andrei Bastunets

    Chairperson of the Belarusian Association of Journalists and 2023 Civil Society Awardee

    For the Belarusian Association of Journalists, feeling the support of the international community and fellow journalists is essential. We see it as support not only for our organisation, but also for the entire Belarusian independent media sector in the country and in exile. It is very important for us that in this mad world plagued by wars and conflicts people do not forget about Belarus, about Belarusian independent journalists and about our friends and colleagues behind bars. 

    Marina Gutgarts

    Ukrainian National Platform Secretary, who redistributed the prize of the 2022 Civil Society Award in solidarity with Ukrainian civil society

    In 2023, the Ukrainian National Platform redistributed the prize fund from the EaP CSF Civil Society Award for the benefits of Ukrainian troops. The funds were used to purchase stretchers for Ukrainian combat medics in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia areas and for electrocardiographers in Kharkiv hospital 

    Ion Manole

    Executive Director of Moldovan Association Promo-LEX and 2019 awardee

    The Civil Society Award was and remains a recognition of the efforts and contribution of the Promo-LEX Association to the democratisation of the country and the Eastern Partnership region.

      Acknowledgments

      We would like to thank our generous donors for their continuous support towards our activities. The content of the event is the sole responsibility of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. 

      Previous editions