October EPAN meeting in Malta

The CONCORD working group on enlargement, pre-accession and neighbourhood (EPAN), which is convened by TRIALOG, met for one of its twice-yearly meetings at the beginning of October 2009. The meeting, which took place in Malta’s capital Valletta, was an opportunity for members to meet and exchange information as well as plan activities for 2010 around the group’s focus areas – the European neighbourhood and the pre-accession areas of the Western Balkans and Turkey.

The southern neighbourhood subgroup prepared for a development forum that will meet in November on the impact of the financial crisis in the region and at which the group’s chair will represent EPAN. The subgroup members also exchanged information on a number of regional initiatives, following up the Istanbul conclusions of 2006 on the role of women in the region, a conference planned by the French Euro-Med platform and the Slovenian NGDO platform SLOGA for March 2010 and the Civil Med Forum.

The eastern neighbourhood subgroup focused on the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, which will be meeting for the first time in November. EPAN has been invited to join the forum, and several member organisations of platforms active within EPAN will also be in attendance. They also discussed the Black Sea NGO Forum which is taking place these days (Oct 29-31) in Bucharest, and where it might overlap with Eastern neighbourhood priorities.

The pre-accession subgroup outlined a table of next steps to take on various issues: reviewing the country progress reports which have been released in the middle of October (see related TIS article “The EC releases its enlargement package”), a couple of weeks after the meeting; contributing to the EP lobbying that will be part of the CONCORD General Assembly in November and taking forward a forum to share best practices on civil dialogue with organisations in the region.

The whole working group discussed the European Commission initiative ‘European Transition Compendium’ with Adolfo Sanchez, the consultant hired to draft the compendium. It was a lively debate, with Mr Sanchez offering answers to questions on challenges previously identified by members of the group and others in NMS platforms (see earlier TIS articles in July and June TIS).

The decisions taken in Malta will shape the work of the group in 2010. More details are available from the minutes, which will be available on the CONCORD extranet from the beginning of November. For any further questions, please write to TRIALOG policy officer Rebecca Steel-Jasińska at: trialog@concordeurope.org

Information provided by Rebecca Steel-Jasińska, TRIALOG