Latvian Institute of International Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia invite you to a roundtable discussion “From the Vilnius Summit to the Riga Summit: Priorities, Goals, Achievements of the Eastern Partnership”.
On Wednesday 9 October 2013, 10:00-12:30. Venue: Riga Graduate School of Law, Strelnieku iela 4 k-2, Riga, Latvia.
The working language of the conference is English.
Organizers are Latvian Institute of International Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia with support of European Commission Representation in Latvia, Trans European Policy Studies Association (contributing to this event within the TEPSA Guest Lecture series), and Riga Graduate School of Law.
The discussion will bring together politicians and experts from Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Finland and Latvia:
- Natalia Gherman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova
- Dzianis Melyantsou, Senior Analyst of Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies
- Hrant Kostanyan, Associate Research Fellow of Centre for European Policy Studies
- Kristi Raik, Researcher of Finnish Institute of International Affairs
- Juris Poikāns, Ambassador at Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia
- Andris Sprūds, Director of Latvian Institute of International Affairs
The roundtable discussion will be opened by Andrejs Pildegovičs, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia.
Over the last years Eastern Partnership initiative has provided some tangible results. The work on four Association Agreements is moving forward, and considerable progress in visa facilitation and liberalization regimes has also been made. Meanwhile, the EU is still struggling to convince its partners that the Eastern Partnership Project is an attractive offer. The current situation still raises questions: What do Eastern partners really expect from the EU policy makers? Which aspects and fields of activity should be emphasized in order to promote useful cooperation with Eastern Partners? Finally, what is Russia’s role in the game?
The program of the discussion with the full list of speakers is available here.