Strasbourg, 24 September 2020 – The midterm results of the second phase of the European Union and Council of Europe Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) launched in 2019 and the impact of the programme on the lives of people in the Eastern Partnership region will be the key focus of an online event held on 5-7 October 2020. The event will be held under the title ‘Improving the lives of citizens through better governance’.
A welcome address by Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe and by Olivér Várhelyi, EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement will be presented at 9:00 CET on 5 October.
It will be followed at 10:30 CET by a live session “Eastern Partnership: challenges and priorities for future cooperation” (Bluejeans link https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/rxgwqdzs)
On 7 October at 10:30 CET a live panel “Responses to COVID 19 and lessons learned in the Eastern Partnership region” will be held (Bluejeans link https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/rescxakf)
High-level representatives of the Council of Europe, the European Union and the national authorities from the Eastern Partnership countries will be taking part in the live sessions.
The audience will have the possibility to ask questions in ‘chat’ format and answers will be provided live by the panellists.
Between the live sessions, from 5 to 7 October, interviews/statements by representatives of the European Union and the Council of Europe, testimonies from beneficiaries and partners from the Eastern Partnership countries , as well as other resources on the results of PGG in the priority areas (fighting economic crime, better justice for citizens, combating violence against women, protection against discrimination) will be posted on the dedicated website : pjp-eu.coe.int/PGG4Citizens (from 5 October 09:00 CET and will remain accessible during and after the event).
Interested media representatives are invited to access the information on the dedicated page, follow the live sessions on 5 and 7 October and pose their questions in writing.
The PGG programme is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe
Background:
In April 2014, the European Union and the Council of Europe agreed that targeted co-operation activities with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus – the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries – would be implemented under the Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) programme. The PGG co-operation activities aim to strengthen the capacity of the Eastern Partnership countries, which are member States of the Council of Europe, with the exception of Belarus, to implement domestic reforms to bring them closer to European standards in the fields of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The phase I of the PGG programme started in 2015 and was completed in 2018. The second phase of PGGII was launched in 2019 and will run until 2021. The current phase is focused on the fight against corruption, judicial reform and combating discrimination.
