Establishing the Eastern Partnership Think Bridge, Kyiv / Ukraine

The “Eastern Partnership Think Bridge” is a project aimed on establishing  cooperation between think tanks specializing in foreign policy issues from all six EaP countries and EU countries interested in the region.

The Kick-off planning session of the editorial board and think tank representatives in Kyiv on November, 18^th was devoted to planning, working on methodology, setting roles and planning topics for the first several issues.

Partners of the project are:

• Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism” (Ukraine)

• Regional Cooperation Center (Armenia)

• Center for Economic and Social Development (Azerbaijan)

• Foundation "European Initiative - Liberal Academy Tbilisi” (Georgia)

• Center for strategic and foreign policy studies (Belarus)

• Foreign Policy Association (APE) (Moldova)

Despite being neighbors geographically, having common historical background and some similarities on the current stage of development, the Eastern Partnership countries (Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan) are very diverse in terms of political and social situation. Having common goals in the EaP initiative of the European Union they mostly focus on cooperation with European institutions.

At the same time countries of the region lack communication among themselves. And thus, miss the opportunities for further cooperation, success stories of activities within the initiative and examples of good governance from their neighbors. Considering massive influence of Russian propaganda, objective first-hand information from other EaP countries and the region can play the crucial role in developing fresh visions and fostering mutual cooperation. Building the bridge between expert communities in the countries of the EaP region and creating the platform for think tanks’ cooperation will fill the gap in distributing analytical products for stakeholders.

Eight international experts from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Belarus, and Ukraine took part in the meeting. The experts have discussed the importance of the monthly analytical Digest that will enable a complex approach to analyze the on-going situation in the Eastern Partnership and provide the key European decision and policy makers the latest expertise.

The EaP Think Bridge Digest is supposed to be a monthly review of events in each of the Eastern Partnership countries, based on the common methodological approach to the presentation of information. Each issue will also have an analytical article devoted to the most important and outstanding events that took place in one of the countries or the region.

The first several issues of THE THINK BRIDGE Digest could be found following the link.