Between 13 and 15 November, the Center for Public Diplomacy joined the 3rd Association Exchange Forum supported by the International Renaissance Foundation that gathered in Kyiv for the third time representatives of the public sector, government officials, politicians from Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova to discuss the key elements of the countries’ Association Agreement implementation and relations with the European Union.
The CPD Chair Andrii Vitrenko considers that the event is an effective platform for exchange of experience and best practices in the three countries’ approaching the EU. «It’s also important that the Association Exchange Forum gives an opportunity of the open dialogue with the representatives of the EU institutions. Well, after a few years of Ukraine’s hard homework on implementation of the Association Agreement in its relationship with the EU the question that has to be answered is what comes next, when and how we’ll be able to move to gaining the prospect of membership in the EU? Unfortunately, we haven’t received any positive response from Brussels to this day».
Participants of the 3rd Association Exchange Forum have adopted the Joint Declaration of Georgian, Moldovan, Ukrainian Civil Society Platforms on Cooperation in Striving for European Integration in which they call on the Governments and Parliaments of the three countries to launch trilateral high-level cooperation formats, and to the EU – to institutionalize the enhanced dialogue in the EU+3 format.
