1-2 March 2022

On Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 March 2022, the ECR Group will host recognised experts in the fields of security, economy, democratisation and European integration, as well as current and former decision-makers from the Eastern Partnership region for the first ECR Eastern Partnership Summit, titled ‘Eastern Partnership – Europe as a civilisational choice’.

The summit will focus on the questions: ‘What can the EU offer to the Eastern Neighbourhood countries?’ and ‘What added-value could the Eastern Neighbourhood countries bring to the EU with their gradual integration?’.
The first panel will aim to carry out a general assessment of EU policies in the region in recent years and their influence on solving existing problems while the second panel will address a more broadly the long-term impact of the ongoing integration process with the Eastern Neighbourhood countries on the EU, paying particular attention to the implications that this gradual opening towards the East might have for European economy, security and defence policy, as well as European demography, societies and values. Speakers will try to define the role that Eastern Partnership countries have to play in the future of Europe.

Europe is not only limited to the European Union, nor should these two terms be treated as synonymous. That is why, in order to make this reflexion genuinely European, the ECR Group has decided to include in the debate on the future of Europe the perspectives of those countries aspiring to membership to or closer integration with the European Union, i.e. those from the Eastern Partnership region and the Western Balkans. We should use the opportunity offered by the Conference on the Future of Europe to make the voice of all Europeans heard.

Live-streamed in English, Polish and Russian on the ECR Group’s YouTube channel, the broadcast will feature ECR Group Co-Chairmen Professor Ryszard Legutko and Raffaele Fitto; President of the ECR Institutional Policy Working Group Prof Zdzisław Krasnodębski; ECR MEPs Alexandr Vondra, Witold Waszczykowski and Anna Fotyga; and distinguished guests as Mr Ostap Semerak, former Minister of Ecology of Ukraine; Mr Giorgi Baramidze, former Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration of Georgia and Mr Franak Viačorka, Senior Advisor to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, leader of the Belarussian opposition.

Programme

Opening: Tuesday @ 16:30 CET

• ECR Co-Chairman Professor Ryszard Legutko, MEP
• Professor Zdzisław Krasnodębski, MEP, Chair of the ECR Working Group on Institutional Reform
• Mr Giorgi Baramidze, former Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration of Georgia
• Ms Anna Fotyga, MEP, former chair of the EP Subcommittee on Security and Defence, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland

Panel I: ‘What can the EU offer to the Eastern Neighbourhood countries?’: Tuesday @ 17:00 CET

Introductory remarks

• Mr Ostap Semerak, former Minister of Ecology of Ukraine
• Professor Zdzisław Krasnodębski, MEP, Chair of the ECR Working Group on Institutional Reform

Expert discussion

• Mr Tevan Poghosyan, president, International Center for Human Development, former Armenian MP
• Dr Tinatin Akhvlediani, research fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies
• Mr Franak Viačorka, Senior Advisor to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, leader of the Belarussian opposition
• Ms Veronika Movchan, Academic Director, Head of the Center for Economic Studies, Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting
• Dr Witold Waszczykowski, MEP, Chair of the EP Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, First Vice-Chair of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland
• Dr Alexandr Vondra, MEP, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs of the Czech Republic

Panel II: ‘What added-value could the Eastern Neighbourhood countries bring to the EU with their gradual integration?’: Wednesday @ 10:00 CET

Introductory remarks

• Mr Luc Pierre Devigne, Deputy Managing Director for Europe and Central Asia, Director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia and OSCE, EEAS
• Professor Zdzisław Krasnodębski, MEP, Chair of the ECR Working Group on Institutional Reform

Expert discussion

• Professor Ghia Nodia, political scientist, Caucus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, former Minister of Education and Science of Georgia
• Mr Taras Voznyak, political and cultural scientist, director of the Lviv National Art Gallery, editor-in-chief of Independent Cultural Journal Ї
• Dr Vadim Pistrinciuc, sociologist, former Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection, former Moldovan MP
• Professor Elena Korosteleva, political scientist, University of Kent
• Mr Hermann Tertsch, MEP, Member of the EP Foreign Affairs Committee

Closing remarks: Wednesday @ 11:15 CET

• ECR Co-Chairman Raffaele Fitto, MEP
• Professor Zdzisław Krasnodębski, MEP, Chair of the ECR Working Group on Institutional Reform

The show will be hosted by Milena Milotinova, Anchor of “Brussels 1 TV Show”, BULGARIA ON AIR TV.

The event will be streamed with live interpretations in English, Polish and Russian on the ECR Group’s YouTube channel.

Broadcast live: Tuesday @ 16:30 - 18:30 CET & Wednesday @ 10:00 - 12:15 CET