Register for the online presentation which will be held on June 30 at 10 am CET and meet the experts from EaP countries, who have contributed to the analysis.
Presentation Invitees: the policymakers from the EU and EaP countries, representatives of the ministries, think tanks, international financial organizations and development institutions are invited to participate in the event.
Registration: https://strategeast.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tDRjkzOPQmC2MOjHvGwGkg
Throughout the 2020 year upon the request of StrategEast center for a new economy, the experts from the Eastern Partnership countries commented on the most critical issues of the Eastern Partnership, new European Union initiatives related to the Eastern Partnership, the correspondence of the governance in the Eastern Partnership to the standards adopted in the European Union. Today StrategEast presents this work in the report “Eastern Partnership Development”. The main goal of the report is to give European institutions an opportunity to correct their programs of cooperation with the European Partnership countries based on the received feedback, and to shift the focus of collaboration to the subjects demanded by civil society, so that the initiative works in the best possible way for the benefit of those for whom it was conceived – for the benefit of tens of millions of residents of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
In 2020 Eastern Partnership, a joint initiative of the European Union and six Eastern European partners went through a kind of crash test. At the beginning of the second decade of its work Eastern Partnership has encountered unprecedented challenges:
- Transitional economics of six east European countries and Caucasus are facing significant difficulties caused by lockdowns during the pandemic;
- The imperfection of the health care system in some countries has brought the population to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe;
- The truly heated war has unfolded between two participants of the Eastern Partnership – Armenia and Azerbaijan;
- Belarusian authorities lost legitimacy as the EU countries had not recognized the results of the presidential election; they declared the reduction of their participating level in Eastern Partnership to experts.
On the global scale, Eastern Partnership did not look good, and It is important to see the condition of EaP from the perspective of member countries’ experts.
Presentation agenda:
Keynote speech by Anatoly Motkin, President of StreategEast center for a new economy.
Q&A session with report experts:
- Kakha Gogolashvili, Senior Fellow and Director of European Studies Center at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, Georgia;
- Heghine Aleksanyan, Analyst at “Enlight” Public Research Center NGO, Armenia;
- Artem Bidenko, Head of the Institute of Information Security in Ukraine;
- Dr. Kateryna Bornukova, Academic Director of BEROC Economic Research Center, Belarus;
- Igor Girlea, independent researcher, Moldova;
- Shahla Ismayil, Chairwoman, Women’s Association for Rational Development (WARD), Azerbaijan.
Anatoly Motkin, President of StrategEast center for a new economy.
Mr. Motkin is a successful technology investor with years of experience in political consulting and media entrepreneurship in the Eurasian region. He began his career as a political consultant both in Israel and Eurasia. He later moved from politics to media, helping to start one of the leading Russian language media companies in Israel. Mr. Motkin has served as an advisor and investor to both the public and private sectors, by successfully backing a number of Israeli IT projects, developed in the High Technologies Park in Belarus.
As his career has shifted over time, Mr. Motkin has consistently shown his dedication to improving business practices and government transparency in the Eurasian region. Mr. Motkin’s extensive background has led him to deepen his focus on reinforcement of the values of rule of law and private property protection in the former Soviet region through the creation of StrategEast.
Heghine Aleksanyan, Analyst at “Enlight” Public Research Center NGO, Armenia.
Heghine Aleksanyan is an analyst and editor-in-chief of the Translation department at “Enlight” Public Research Center NGO. Previously, she was the coordinator of the “Analytical Forum” department at the same organization. Heghine has recently graduated from the American University of Armenia, she also has a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Yerevan State University and is currently enrolled in a graduate certificate program in translation at the American University of Armenia. She also has studied for six months at Masaryk University, in the Czech Republic on an Erasmus + exchange program. Heghine is an editor and author of dozens of articles, mainly in the field of art and culture.
Artem Bidenko, Head of the Institute of Information Security in Ukraine.
Artem Bidenko is the head of the Institute of Information Security in Ukraine. He holds a master’s degree in political science from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Mr. Bidenko is an author of numerous articles, co-author of two books, and has worked as deputy minister and state secretary. As a national expert, he has led different national communicational projects. Artem was responsible for managing the national brand UkraineNow project and has organized more than 20 national and worldwide media campaigns.
Kateryna Bornukova, Academic Director of BEROC Economic Research Center, Belarus.
Dr. Kateryna Bornukova is the academic director of BEROC Economic Research Center. Kateryna holds a master’s degree in economics from the Kyiv School of Economics and a doctorate in economics from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Dr. Bornukova’s research interests include macroeconomics, the economics of transition, and labor economics. She is a professor for the Master of Business Administration program at the IPM Business School in Minsk and previously served as a senior economic advisor to the UN Resident Representative in Belarus. Dr. Bornukova also works as a consultant for the World Bank and other international organizations.
Igor Girlea, Independent researcher, Moldova.
Igor holds a Bachelor’s degree in law and a Master’s degree in law from the State University of Moldova. From 2012-2018, Igor was an active member of civil society, working with NGOs to defend, promote, and represent youth’s interests. From 2018-2020 Igor was a consultant at the Legal Committee of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. Igor’s research interests include the development of the East European Partnership with a focus on legal reforms in Moldova in connection with EEP conditions, and specifically with strengthening legal frameworks and economical restructuring.
Kakha Gogolashvili, Senior Fellow and Director of European Studies Center at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, Georgia.
Kakha Gogolashvili is a senior fellow and Director of the European Studies Center at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. In 1990, he started working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia in charge of international economic relations. From 1994-1996 Mr. Gogolashvili engaged in official negotiations on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between Georgia and European Communities. From 1996-2000, he worked at the Mission of Georgia to the EU as a counselor and later as deputy chief of mission / chargé d’affaires.
As a Director of the Department of Relations with the EU at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Mr. Gogolashvili initiated a governmental commission on PCA Implementation (2000). He holds the diplomatic rank of the Envoy Extraordinary Plenipotentiary.
For the last 18 years, Mr. Gogolashvili has been engaged in different projects contributing to the Europeanization of the country, in particular assisting the Georgian government in the design and implementation of the institutional and legal reforms carried out according to PCA, European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), and other relevant frameworks for EU-Georgia relations.
Shahla Ismayil, Chairwoman, Women’s Association for Rational Development (WARD), Azerbaijan.
Shahla Ismayil is a gender expert and women’s rights defender. She chairs the Women’s Association for Rational Development (WARD), aiming for women’s empowerment and participation. Shahla Ismayil authored over 120 projects and over 150 publications, including manuals, policy papers, and recommendation packs in the field of human rights, gender equality, and civil society. She is an attorney for Human Rights House Foundation in Azerbaijan, as well as an advisor for two grant-making women’s foundations – the Global Fund for Women and Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Rights. Shahla Ismayil also monitors and reports on civil society sustainability in Azerbaijan with a specific focus on women’s rights organizations. In September 2018 she was awarded the Bob Hepple Equality Award by Equal Rights Trust (UK) for 20 years of work in justice and equality. In 2020, Shahla Ismayil was elected to coordinate the Azerbaijan National Platform of the EaP Civil Society Forum for two years. Currently, Shahla Ismayil works towards her PhD in gender studies.
StrategEast center for a new economy has the mission to reinforce the values of the rule of law and private property protection in Eurasian and Baltic countries through the transition from natural‑resource‑based to knowledge-driven economies. Its work is focused on the 14 countries that proclaimed or restored their independence after the collapse of the USSR: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. StrategEast is a registered 501(c)3 organization based in the United States with regional offices in Ukraine and Georgia.
