 Good morning, everybody. You're all very welcome indeed to this special event at the Institute for International and European Affairs. My name is John O'Brennan. I hold the Jean Manet chair in European integration at Manuth University, and I'm a member of the Institute's global Europe group. We are delighted today to be able to host this event, and the title of which is Towards the European Union, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, Vision for the Future of the Eastern Partnership. We are very grateful for the support of our co-organizers today, the embassies of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. So special thanks go out to the ambassadors, Ambassador George Zurabashvili of Georgia, Ambassador Mikulay of Moldova, and Ambassador Shaliput of Ukraine. Just a few words on organization. Each of our speakers is going to have five to seven minutes, and anticipating that that will conclude about 11.45, we will then have about 45 minutes or so for questions. If audience members would like to ask a question, you can do so by using the Q&A function on Zoom. So if you send your questions through, I'll be able to direct them to the specific speaker, or if it's a general question to the panel. A reminder that this morning's addresses and the Q&A similarly are both being delivered on the record. And so just briefly to introduce each of our speakers. It's a pleasure firstly to welcome Lawrence Meredith. Lawrence is the Director of Neighborhood East and Institution Building within the European Commission. So the Eastern Partnership is very much Lawrence's bailiwick, so to speak. We also welcome from Dublin, Ambassador Joe Hackett, who is the Director General of the European Union Division within the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. We also welcome Salom Shapakidze, who is the Head of the EU Integration Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. We welcome Vladimir Cook, who is the Acting Head of European Integration, the European Integration Directorate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova. And last but certainly not least, we welcome Marina Mikhalenko, who is the Director of the Department for the European Union and NATO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. It's a great pleasure then to begin our proceedings and in doing so, I invite Lawrence to take the floor. Lawrence. Great. Thank you very much, Joe. Wonderful to be with you all this morning in this digital environment. I'm really honoured to have the opportunity to open this event. Of course, I would have enjoyed it all the more if we could have gathered us on a previous occasion in Dublin, but I'm sure we'll have that opportunity in the future. And it comes at a very timely moment because we celebrated last year the 10th anniversary of the Eastern Partnership and we celebrated it by a massive public consultation on what should be the future of the Eastern Partnership. Then in March this year, and in fact, it was the first ever document adopted online by the College of Commissioners in 60 years. It so happened that it fell on early March and we had to real scramble to finalise it. But we managed it and I think it's appropriate that the theme, given the dreadful year that 2020 is proving to be, is reinforcing resilience in the Eastern Partnership. And of course, none of us would have liked to see how relevant this has become in the face of this dreadful COVID pandemic. But where is the future of the Eastern Partnership going? We think it's evolution, not revolution. We got a lot of support for the fact that the Eastern Partnership in its first 10 years has focused on delivering tangible results for the citizens of the Eastern Partnership. So what are we proposing to change? Well, I think in response to the pandemic, the number one priority for all citizens, and in fact, I've just come from a presentation on opinion polls across the Eastern Partnership is the economy, economy and connectivity. It's so important to rebound from this dreadful COVID pandemic. The next point I would like to make is that we got strong feedback that citizens in the Eastern Partnership and EU alike felt that it was important to do more on the values agenda. And I know that this is something that resonates in Dublin. That means we had one of the four priorities was governance before. Now, two of the five priorities will focus on values issues. That will include, on the harder side, really, justice reform is crucial. I think this is one of the big obstacles today, but also tackling organized crime and corruption. And then as events, and I know we're focusing on Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. But as we see across the region, events in Belarus, the need for a more inclusive society, the importance of independent media and civil society. And there, I think Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova can really show leadership. And I'm very interested to hear what participants will say. So we need to protect, but we also need to empower. And those are strong messages that we got from the consultation. And finally, the fourth and fifth priorities comes as no surprise, the digital transformation and the green transition. And we wouldn't even be having this discussion if we weren't getting individually better at the digital transformation. But also, I think, as President von der Leyen said, in her excellent State of the Union speech the other day, it's important to build back better. And that's going to be a greener future in line with Paris and what the priorities of young people are. Because I think, you know, what I, and I'm looking forward to hearing from Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, what we hear from their citizens is they want more of Europe. And I think that's something that's interesting for us to listen to on the inside of the European Union. And something that we really need to help them deliver, both in substance, but also in strategic communication. And that's why the opinion poll work that we're doing also really helps us target our support. But of course, listening carefully to Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine is also key. So with that, I'm looking forward to the other speakers' presentations and I'm of course looking forward to the questions and answers. Thank you very much, Joe. Thank you very much indeed, Lawrence. Our second speaker this morning is Ambassador Joe Hackes. Yeah, thank you very much. Thanks to the IIEA for facilitating this important and timely discussion. Thanks to Lawrence for his leadership on all things Eastern partnership and his interest in the Irish dimension to that and the way he's helped guide and advise us in terms of our national approach to Eastern partnership. And a special thank you to our colleagues in Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova, both for being here, but also for how active their embassies are here and for making sure that we are well informed about developments in their countries, but also across the Eastern partnership. Look, I think it's self-evident looking at the map that Ireland is in a European context geographically distant from most, indeed, all of the Eastern partnership countries. There could be a tendency to say, well, that's far away. Why should we really engage in that agenda? And yet we have and not only have we engaged and been strongly supportive of the Eastern partnership, but I think each of those countries and that region as a whole resonates here both with our people and politically for a number of reasons. I think first there's a natural appreciation that all of those countries have a complex historical relationship with a very large challenging neighbour. And in an Irish context that automatically resonates given our own history. I think more recently we're a country and a people who really recognised the economic transformation that happened in our country as a result of our membership of the European Union and our engagement with a large, well-disposed multilateral organisation. So economic change in countries transitioning out of a previous situation like all the countries Eastern partnership is one that resonates here. And likewise, changes in society is also something that we can relate to in terms of improvement of our governance, of our values, of our social policy. Ireland has been transformed through our membership of the European Union. And that similar process is something that we have prioritised in the context of the Eastern partnership. We have people particularly from all over Georgia and Ukraine living here in increasing numbers. So we have diasporas here from your countries and they have an impact in our approach. And then as Lawrence has said, rule of law values and conflict resolution are all collar stones of our foreign policy and they're all themes that find a strong echo and resonance in the Eastern partnership agenda. So we've been supportive like many member states of the principles of conditionality, of inclusiveness, of differentiation and they have underpinned our approach to the Eastern partnership. And as we look forward to the next 10 years and specific areas where we've tried to prioritise is climate and increased cooperation in raising climate standards in the region, youth and values and governance. Now, I think there can be a tendency to look at the Eastern partnership 10 years on and go through each countries and go, well, we've had a major international crisis in Ukraine with Crimea annex and a continuing conflict in the East. We still have the two regions in Abkhazia and South Asetia contested and increasingly unstable. We have continued uncertainty around Transnistria in the context of Moldova. We have dictatorship more than ever before since the early 90s in Belarus and we've a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And you might say, well, Eastern partnership hasn't been very successful. And if you look at that landscape, and yet if you go through the level of transformation in trade and investment, in improvement in infrastructure and transport, in enhanced climate standards in those countries, particularly the three here, in increased digital connectivity, in opportunities for youth by the extension of the Erasmus program, and of course, very visibly visa liberalisation. The relationship over 10 years has in many ways been transformed in those countries that saw to grasp it. I think internally within the EU, having the Eastern partnership as a framework has helped us enormously maintain a degree of unity. It's provided a framework that has helped the European Union navigate both the economic relationship with Eastern partnership countries, but also navigate through the various crisis that we've staggered from one to the other over the last 10 years. And maintaining that framework gives us a framework through which we can approach new crisis as we've seen applied to Belarus and the role of the Eastern partnership and amending the Eastern partnership and using that framework to deal with the Belarus situation has been very important. I think at the same time, if we're honest, Eastern partnership was designed although only 10 years ago at a different time. Yes, we've had the experience in Georgia, so our eyes had been opened somewhat, but it was certainly pre-Ukraine and pre the very sharp deterioration in relations with Russia that have happened since 2013-2014. And I think it was designed initially a little bit, very much in the previous neighbourhood policy where our regions to the south and the east, we assumed would increasingly want to be like us and emulate us. And through our neighbourhood policy, we would spread our values and our approach to the economy and approach to societies. And I think we've realised that while our intentions from our perspective may be good, they are seen potentially as threatening elsewhere, that for Ireland, we've never seen the Eastern partnership as a geopolitical construct. We've never seen it as targeted societies in the future they want to create. And while others may seek to geopolitics for Ireland, we will always insist that where countries in the Eastern partnership are elsewhere, want to choose a future that is more closely aligned to Europe. That is their choice to make. And if they want to make that choice, that is something that we should facilitate and engage with them on. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Ambassador. Now to our third speaker this morning. We're delighted to welcome the head of EU integration in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Georgia, Salom Shapakitse. Salom. Very warm greetings from Tbilisi. Firstly, let me thank Ireland for hosting the event and organisers, the Embassy of Georgia, of Moldova and Ukraine, the Institute of International and European Affairs, especially Mr. Andrew Gilmore and John O'Brennan. Thank you for your moderation. And of course, I'm very happy to see Mr. Lawrence Meredith and Mr. Joe Hackett and my dear colleagues from Moldova and Ukraine. This is a very good initiative to bring together the three associated countries. Indeed, the three of us, EU aspiring nations. Thank you, Lawrence, for saying that we need more EU. Indeed, we need that. And the three of us are having association agreements, DCFTAs. The three of us are having the same interests as well as challenges. Therefore, it is only natural that the three of us will wish to talk to each other. And I really hope that in the future we will have more occasions and formats where the three of us, similarly to the DCFTA ministerials, similarly to the DCFTA format, will be discussing with the EU other dimensions of the association agreement. This is also a very timely event. Indeed, we have assessed already in a way the decade of the partnership. We have assessed the achievements, but we also identified gaps and lessons learned. And on the other hand, we are now in the process of shaping the future of the East Partnership post-2020. Again, for Georgia, East Partnership laid solid ground in advancing our bilateral relations with the EU that translated into solid framework of association agreement with the DCFTA, with a free trade, with a visa-free regime, into being translated, of Georgia being part of many EU agencies, being part of many EU programs, etc. And in fact, this is our approach or philosophy, if you like, in the absence of perspective, at least at this stage, to use every format and every dialogue we have to approximate further with the EU. And in this context, one, we see gradual integration into the EU single market as our next overarching benchmark. In fact, association agreement and DCFTA has already provided a solid ground to move towards this goal, and we are ready to exploit fully the opportunities the agreement offers us. And a perspective for gaining access to the EU for freedoms will serve as a great incentive and stimulus to continue with the implementation of the wide-scale reforms. And two, enhanced connectivity. It is key to politically and physically shrink the distance, to anchor us further with the EU. And it will certainly help us to better explore the possibility that DCFTA offers us. And here exploring the connectivity potential of the Black Sea is a very important milestone for us. And we are having quite a number of initiatives to this end. Well, despite the COVID, this year, we still manage the European Union, the member states, and all of the partners will still manage to keep the Eastern partnership active on our agendas. We held two high-level VTC meetings, and more importantly, two decisions were made. One, to hold the physical summit next year under the Portuguese presidency, and two, to adopt a substantial declaration. And as we are gearing now towards the summit, the developments in the region require for adequate and for more attention. And the upcoming summit, upcoming Eastern partnership summit will be in a way decisive whether we are capable of properly assessing the partnership's decade experience and whether it will stay an efficient and interesting format for each and individual partner. In this context, I think it's crucial that the summit delivers a politically strong forward-looking declaration. We expect that the summit reaffirms strategic importance of the partnership and its firm support forward towards the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the partners, and acknowledges the European aspirations and European choice of the partners. But also, differentiation and inclusiveness should continue to be the guiding principles of the Eastern partnership. And the common denominator should not hamper us from wishing more, should not hamper us from coming closer to the EU. And to this end, we welcome very much the European Union's Foreign Affairs Council conclusions that highlight and support strengthening of tailored bilateral relations. But also, we share a goal of reinforced resilience of state institutions and society spelled out in the joint communication under five major policy areas. We really believe that these priorities offer a very good starting point that should take this partnership as a whole to the next level. And we look forward to start working on the joint declaration, summit declaration, because it is important to start the process as soon as possible, especially amidst the covered development in the region. We all know this is not an easy exercise, and we should not shy away from the challenges, because they will not disappear. And to the end, let me just once again reiterate that we remain committed to implementation of the association agreement, which is the backbone of our relations with the EU, but we're also committed to continue being active partner within the Eastern partnership. And we look forward to work on the post 2020 agenda with all our partners. And last, hopefully, we will have the first draft joint declaration before the end of this year. So I'll stop here, and I'm looking forward to our discussions today. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Salome. Lots of questions that we can come back to in the Q&A there, including about the Eastern partnership summit. Now, our next speaker this morning is Vladimir Kuk, and Vladimir is the acting head of European integration within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European integration of the Republic of Moldova. So, Vladimir. Thank you. Thank you, John. Thank you, Salome. Mr. Hackett, a lot of all speakers. Lawrence, really delighted to be at this panel, and nobody can exaggerate the timeliness of this discussion given where we are, where the Eastern partnership is heading to. So I will, there are many thoughts, many ideas, and I will try to group them in five basic points I want to share with you today. So my first point is about basic perception. Mr. Hackett, referred to it already, I will maybe elaborate. So we see the Eastern partnership is a mature cooperation format with a well-established machinery of bilateral and multilateral platforms meeting regular levels, and it was a quite diverse agenda. This is very good. But comparing to where it started back in 2008 and 2009, I believe the impression of many stakeholders is that the Eastern partnership has lost a bit of its political spark, political drive. So Eastern partnership is basically the only EU policy framework for its Eastern neighbors, and I wish we heard a bit more political messages about Eastern partnership in the state of the Union address, for example, in September. So my first basic message is that the Eastern partnership should get back to the table of political leaders and not only on the EU summit. It should be a more constant concern or point of interest. My second point is about successes. Eastern partnership has been the framework for some major achievements for our three countries and not only for our three. In case of my country, I know mobility of people and trade are two major flagships. In six years, over two-thirds of Moldovan citizens traveled visa-free at least once to EU. About two-thirds of Moldovan experts and 50% of our imports are with EU. So these are major achievements. But these are the successes of not so distant past and present. So to remain a successful policy and cooperation framework, the Eastern partnership should set such game-changing targets for future. My third point is about challenges and commitments. Well, Eastern neighborhood is an area with a number of known challenges. Three major challenges are stressing rule of law. And believe me, Moldova, we are well aware of the need to improve the record on the rule of law. Second is ensuring a sustainable economic growth. And third is resolve major security issues, such as protracted conflicts. Ireland, by the way, can offer a piece of very useful advice and expertise on all three of them, having experience. Definitely COVID-19 has become a fourth systemic challenge. And I believe we would agree with that. And many thanks for already provided support to all of our countries. So coming back to commitments. In this panel, you see three countries which are very much committed through their association agreements to work on these systemic issues. And maybe we are at a bit different level of progress in key areas. But what unites us is a clear and strong commitment to move ahead based on our firm, strong European aspirations and European choice. My fourth point is about shaping the future. Salome described very in a very detailed manner how she sees the road to the summit. I can only subscribe to many of what she said. I will just say that, look, summit indeed is behind the corner. And in terms of sectoral cooperation, in terms of substance, we largely support the five areas proposed by the European Commission. And we thank the institutions, thank the engineers, thank the European External Action Service and all the DGs on working, on working, preparing such a comprehensive agenda. Building resilience is a good and timely objective, that's for sure. But our common goal should be a bit more ambitious in our view. And I would say the word should be, the keyword should be integration. Call it what you like, gradual step by step, sectoral, economic, but still integration. Just a few examples. In the past few months, Moldova and Ukraine have joined the EU Health Security Committee as observers. Moldova and Georgia are expected to become observers to the European migration network by the end of this year. We say European bodies and networks. National Bank of Moldova just signed an agreement with the European Central Bank on cooperating in the area of banking supervision and very important achievement for Moldova knowing the challenges we have in the banking sector. So the focus of our future work should be on this type of gradual integration and deeper cooperation objectives. So I'm getting to my final point. In the weeks and months to come, besides our already ongoing important work, the focus should be to be put on designing truly ambitious future goals for the Eastern Partnership in medium to long term. At least some of these goals should be the real game changers. In the financial sector, it will be perspective for joining the single-euro payment area. In trade, as Salome already referred to, it's gradual opening, working towards integrating the European single market in the form it's possible, of course. In digital sphere, we welcome the intention to extend benefits of the digital single market to the Eastern neighbors and partners. Thinking of COVID recovery, perhaps we should think about the regional economic and recovery plan prioritizing investments. Such EU has proceeded with the Western Balkans. Certainly, security is a big area of cooperation. And just taking one example, cyber security. Why not to open cooperation with Inesap, another important deliverable which we hope to get for our future to have it on our agenda. And clearly, our three countries, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, will continue working together towards deepening dialogue with European Commission. But what is very, very important is the encouraging messages from the member states. This is the political moment that we need, the European institution needs to proceed further. So, this is what I wanted to say for the initial remarks. Thank you. I'm looking forward to the discussion. Thank you very much indeed, Vladimir. And now to our final speaker this morning, at least in this part of the session. This is Marina Mikhailenko. And Marina is the Director of the Department for the European Union and NATO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. So Marina, over to you. Dear colleagues, first of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Andrew Gilmore and the Institute of International and the European Affairs to join Aubren, to Joe Huckett and Laurence Meredith and other our colleagues from the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland for making this important and timely event happen. Despite the COVID and all restrictions related to it, we continue our preparation for the EAP summit, the summit which will be very important since our leaders should agree on a new agenda of the EAP for the next decade. I am confident that further success of the EAP depends on a commitment to follow fundamental principles of this initiative and also readiness to set new, ambitious goals for ourselves. In 2009, we agreed that the main goal of the Eastern Partnership is to create the necessary conditions to accelerate political association and further economic integration between the European Union and interested partner countries. We have also concluded that EAP based on shared ownership and mutual commitments will be governed by the differentiation and conditionality principles. And Riga and Brussels in 2015 and 2017, respectively, the EU confirmed its full respect partner sovereign choice, ambitious and goals in their relation with the EU. I am convinced that we cannot step back from these achievements within EAP. Now it's time to acknowledge on practice that EAP needs to be flexible and differentiated according to partners aspirations and achievements. Moreover, the latest development in some of the partners countries prove vital necessity of such an approach. The intention to build the Eastern Partnership policy on the minimum common denominator for all is not the best solution if we want to see this initiative as our common success and if we wanted to preserve the attractiveness of this initiative to the associated partners. Thus, the EAP has to be politically strategic. The initiatives, main benchmarks and incentives like the association agreements and visa liberalization are successfully achieved by those partners who aspire them to keep the EAP attractive to the associated partners, to consolidate its reform, reform motivation role and further facilitate political association and economic integration with the EU. It's high time to agree on the new EAP strategic objectives. We consider that gradual integration into the EU internal market and perspective of the four freedoms for the interested and prepared partners are ambitious and powerful EAP goals to be agreed to to the next decade. Given a different level of the European aspirations among the partners, we suggest to exploit more effectively the EAP differentiation principle. In this regard launching the enhanced dialogues in the EU plus three associated partners in the areas of DCFTA implementation and sectoral integration would significantly contribute to the proper development of the EAP. At the same time, with all respect to the inclusivity principle about mentioned strategic goals should remain open to all other partners based on their interest to proceed with stronger integration with the EU. Ukraine is interested to elaborate jointly with the EU and other partners the ambitious post the 2020 EAP agenda of course. This year Ukraine and other partner states Ukraine together with Moldova and Georgia presented our vision on post 2020 agenda at a number of occasions. We have also stepped up with concrete and very practical proposals within five priority policies suggested by the EU side. Some of our initiatives were included in the commission during communication on Eastern partnership beyond 2020. However, one important element was not properly taken on board neither in communication nor in foreign affairs council conclusions. I'm talking about security dimension of the EAP. The COVID pandemic has demonstrated that our health security is indivisible and we are grateful to the EU mobilizing the emergency package for EAP states to counter pandemic as well as macro financial assistance to cope with its social economic consequences. And I'm convinced that in the same way we have to read our security in general. That is why shaping the EAP future we have to develop its security dimension within the initiative without responding to partner security needs. We can't hardly pretend to implement successfully other goals of the EAP. So let me stress that Eastern partnership are not only Eastern partners are not only recipients of the EU support in security domain. We are ready to contribute to strengthening security in the region and combine our resources within PESCA program once respective legal basis is established. We consider that EAP resilience agenda suggested in the EU joint communication is a good framework to develop security domain of the EAP and we welcome this approach. In the same time we expect that the next year Brussels EAP summit will provide so required political and strategic competitors for the EAP. Continually increasing turbulences in our region approve validity of this request. So we expect the EAP summit during declaration we'd be prepared with due respect to the joint ownership principle as well as the partners expectations and ambitions. Thank you very much. I stop here and I'm looking forward to our discussion. Thank you very much indeed Marina. I want to thank all of the five panelists both for their substantive contributions and for being so economical with time. As an academic this is very strange for me. Academics tend to go on and on and on and can never be managed where time is concerned. So thank you very much. I'd like to remind our audience that if anybody would like a question you can do so by using the Q&A function on Zoom. A reminder also that we are on the record. We have some questions coming in but I'd like if I could briefly just to indulge my position by asking each of our guests from Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine about your experience with COVID this year. I think we had a sense that at least back in the spring during the first wave of the virus that in Eastern Europe the impact of COVID was not as severe at least in terms of infections and deaths. Certainly Poland, Czechia, down to Bulgaria that was the case but now we're in a very different situation and in all three of those jurisdictions the number of infections has reached record levels in recent days. So I wonder if you could give us a sense of how COVID has impacted and to link this to the European Union what you think the European Union should be doing to help Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in the near future. Maybe we'll begin in the same order with Salome. Thank you very much indeed the COVID is very much on everybody's agenda and also in our minds. From the very start the government undertook quite a resonant and quite strict measures to to hamper let's say the spread of the virus and it did deliver very significant results because for many months for many months we had very good results we contained the virus and actually I could say that only since just three weeks ago, two, three weeks ago, the number started to increase and before that we had let's say I don't know 10, 15 cases maximum 30 cases but unfortunately in Georgia three weeks ago the number started to increase like in the rest of the world like in European states in all European states and this is the second way I believe but in the beginning we had we closed also the borders we had the lockdown and of course that was in a way how we managed to contain the virus but we cannot keep the closed country forever I mean the economies have to work and people need jobs so definitely we opened borders also we lifted the lockdown therefore everything started to work and it was only natural that we would get higher numbers and as I'm not mistaken today we had quite a high number something like 1759 this is a high number but definitely I'm sure that our health system will deal with that accordingly until now we're dealing and I'm sure in the future we'll manage that as well and we will contain also the virus the spread of the virus in the future thank you very much and Vladimir thank you thank you yes COVID big challenge in our case situation has been let's say the number of cases has been growing gradually from thousands to hundreds now it's about 1000 plus minus every day we trying to manage and of course there was the initial lockdown caused quite a serious let's say punched our economy in general my understanding is that our GDP is going to decrease this year seven eight percent but while we are we're we're dealing with that also there was another factor the drought in Moldova it was very little rain this year so in our agriculture I mean the economy is very much depending on our agricultural situation so it's a double strike let's say to to Moldova we'll have to we'll have to deal with that you ask about EU I must say that EU managed to mobilize very quickly the support the financial support also to work through WHO the health organization and we've been receiving some humanitarian assistance and the medical equipment the tests now we are at the final stage of basically preparing to receive hopefully the first financial aid that's that's very very helpful I mean the support was coming not only from the EU from the member states individual member states so it's a it's a it's a positive cooperation it's a real I'll say friendly hand of course not only from you the support was coming but EU I would say is one of the leading actor in that sense so thanks for that and I hope we'll get go over through this difficult situation thank you thank you very much Vladimir and to you Marina of course COVID has affected severe Ukraine as other countries in the world and we are grateful to the European Union for the extremely important assistance provided to Ukraine in this context we are talking about a direct response to the pandemic and support for Ukraine's macroeconomic stability we discussed this issue regarding our collaboration to account COVID during the recent Ukraine EU summit which became despite all the challenges with the counter in COVID we successfully conducted the summit which became for the EU the first live summit with the partner states since the beginning of the pandemic we discussed the current situation with the spread of COVID and joint efforts to overcome it we also agreed that the coronavirus vaccine should become a common and accessible global asset and we hope for further close cooperation with the EU on this issue thank you very much indeed now there are questions beginning to come in and I'd like to put the first one if I could it comes from Dmitry Shkorkov from the national news agency of Ukraine he points out that all three trio countries are experiencing complicated electoral campaigns and this was also true of Central and East European countries in the 1990s in 1993 the European Union developed the Copenhagen criteria for membership for aspiring member states and Dmitry's question I think asks whether this is a possible scenario for the trio countries to support their European aspirations so should the European Union put in place more concrete criteria if not with membership in mind at least with the aim of increasing the scope and nature of integration significantly and again I'll throw that out to anybody who would like to answer I'm happy to come in John okay Lawrence yeah thanks very much indeed for the question we we think is extremely important the quality of elections and of course you know with the local elections in Ukraine and imminent elections in a few days both in Georgia and Moldova this is very topical I think what are we doing on the side of the European Union I would say we have a very strong partnership both with the OSCE office responsible for elections based in Warsaw as well as with the Council of Europe and but also with civil society who have an absolutely crucial role so we think that every time there are official international recommendations it's incumbent on the governments to follow up on those recommendations and on the side of the European Union we are strongly supporting with financial support all efforts to make sure recommendations are implemented in between the elections of course approaching the cycle there's quite a lot of it's it's going to be immediately afterwards that we'll want to come in again and pick up the outcome of those elections because free and transparent elections are people's right on the basis of all democracy thank you anybody else okay I will move on to our second question which comes from ambassador Balslev of Denmark and it's about multilateral cooperation within the eastern partnership and the question is whether the multilateral cooperation amongst the six has declined to such an extent that it should be replaced by cooperation between placed I assume the question means on an institutional footing between Georgia Moldova and Ukraine or should there be a renewed effort amongst the six to kind of reconstitute that multilateral cooperation amongst the six and again perhaps Marina or perhaps Salome you would like to begin here can you hear me yes yeah all right firstly I just missed the point during my previous answering the question just to outline to mention that we also received like Ukraine like Moldova and all the partners were also received during the covid assistance and very timely assistance from the UN of course we are grateful for that assistance as well now coming to the eastern partnership as a multilateral format I mean the decade of the partnership has proven that it has been successful it has been successful and in fact based on the priorities and aspirations of each and every partner I mean if I wanted to go further I did go further and I have now this solid framework the others behaved according to the national interest and together the six of us were having also many projects where we cooperate together but one important thing is the differentiation principle a tailored made tailored made bilateral relations which I believe should be the guiding principle of this partnership because the developments also in the region they show us that more attention should be given to the differentiation principle and bilateral relations within this partnership but that does not mean in any way that we don't want a multilateral relations between the six of us projects continue we are committed to work further with all the six within the partnership with all the partners in the future as well but for us for Georgia as I mentioned during my points the guiding principle is still in the core of my relations with the EU is my bilateral relations yes I'm Vladimir yes thank you uh look the as I said also in my remarks the multilateral meetings do continue we just had the rule of law panel we're having a string of platforms meetings in November and preparing the summit so this will continue and I'm sure it will continue as a successful cooperation and we are definitely not against breaking up the eastern partnership and and let's say quitting with with the multilateral six platform I think all try to be all six try to be active participants let's see now we see some new trends and in this participation but I'll stay I'll stay here on multilateral in terms of cooperation between what has happened new since 2017 in 2017 in the summit we agreed that the three associate partners will start as association related dialogue with european commission and that materialized in in meetings at the ministerial level between european commission for trade and three economy ministers on dcfta so this is a concrete thing uh we're in countries having a session agreement a very very high level of commitments and and and let's say ambitions in reform there was a new format created on this specific dcfta free trade it's a huge part of a horror station agreement so I think that format of three plus commission should be continued developed maybe some new topic added like transportation energy so that that's an avenue to to move move ahead thank you yes and marina yeah of course as you know three guidance guidance principles of the eap is joint ownership differentiation and inclusivity and I can see the differentiation principles is helpful to provide new impetus for the eap and I regard ukraine georgia and moldova for stronger integration with the EU based on more for more principle sorry I regard ukraine georgia and moldova jointly suggest as Vladimir just mentioned an enhanced format of dialogue EU plus three where we can reach more progress for our mutual benefits it's about dcfta it's about sectoral integration and and inclusivity for me means that each of the eastern partners should be given the same perspective for stronger integration with the EU based on more for more principles and progress and european oriented reform so we stand for the launching of the enhanced dialogue among three associated partners and we stand for multilateral cooperation in such fears where our other partners interested in thank you very much indeed I have a very interesting question here from peter gunning who is a former irish ambassador and a member of the institute peter asks a question about the may conclusions of the council where it was affirmed that there should be a greater effort made at strategic communication about the eastern partnership and about its benefits and peter's question is about disinformation in the context of sort of broad patterns of such and also specifically in the context of electoral campaigns that are going on now I wonder if I could begin with Lawrence just about our ability and capacity to communicate effectively I guess you could look at this meeting today as part of the irish effort at communicating the importance of the partnership to us so perhaps you'd say speak to this from the point of view of the commission thanks again john and I mean precisely I would and I want to really thank you for hosting it because this is part of the strategic communication effort I think it's really important to bring eastern partners and european union citizens together that's absolutely crucial I passionately believe in strategic communication I'm very grateful to the small but dedicated team that's a previous high representative Mogherini set up I think disinformation is a real challenge but there's some very bright and talented specialists working in the dedicated task force every day debunking myths that are out there that's work that they do on a daily basis but I mean on our side what do we do european commission we're very focused on the positive communication because I think it's really important to for all in the audience to hear we've just heard that the EU is the most trusted foreign institution across the eastern partnership that's a really important achievement and shows that citizens realize that real tangible benefits are coming with support from the european union not just the institutions but most importantly from the member states it's the member states who pay the budget so I think it's this cooperation of EU taxpayers that leads to really making a difference on the ground for eastern partnership citizens first you have to have the results and then you have to communicate them and if I may just one remark on branding I think we've moved away from what used to be quite fashionable when I started my career of exotic names for programs the most famous of which is probably a resmus which is an excellent program but I think we just go for straightforward communication EU for Georgia EU for Moldova and so forth making sure that there are real the projects are delivering change and that all involved can be multipliers to get it out there and of course the government's own national agencies about which I'm sure other panelists will speak at key in this effort so we also work with them to help strengthen their own strategic communication capacity which is fundamental thank you yes again amongst our guests from Moldova Georgia Ukraine if anybody would like particularly to come in on this topic of disinformation no okay if we can move on I have a question from Gigi Gigi Adzi and it's a question that's addressed to Lawrence again this time now this is a question that's way beyond my pay grade I have to say you knew this one would feature I suspect it is when can the associated state associated states be advanced to the level of candidates for membership of the European Union well thank you very much I mean I think as the opinion polls I was looking at this morning show there is indeed very strong support for the European Union from the populations of Georgia Ukraine and Moldova also by the way into earlier from the other three it's especially high also in Armenia so I mean that's an important basis but I mean we've always been very clear you need to have a consensus in the council of the member states and that at this point that's not the case so what's absolutely the most convincing argument that these three countries can make is reform reform reform and reform first and foremost in the interest of their own populations and I know that that's a path that the the governments are committed to I'm sure that will be a really important part by the way of the election debates going on in each of these three countries and I think what we've seen and I'd be very interested in the Irish view perhaps from Joe in a moment is the stronger the consensus among the population that towards the European Union the faster this reform effort can move we saw that very much in in in countries such as Poland, Estonia and so forth and therefore I think it's really important that there's a consensus on what kind of reforms are necessary just this reform is one I would particularly highlight we just talked about the quality of elections free and fair so I think these are crucial issues that the governments are tackling and which will help found very solid foundations moving forward thank you again and perhaps Ambassador Hackett I was very interested in what you said earlier about the transformative impact of the European Union on Ireland but I guess we shouldn't forget that 15 years after we joined the European community Ireland was literally an economic basket case it's arguable that we had wasted a lot of the opportunities that had come along and all of that of course changed very significantly in the 1990s but I wonder if you would just speak to that theme about what value added the European Union constitutes to reform efforts and how that can be communicated effectively to our populations yeah thanks let me just look I won't skirt the first question because Laurence kind of threw me the ball too so I so let's put it bluntly is eastern partnership and are the three countries here on a pathway to EU membership and let's just be clear the answer to that right now is no because the eastern partnership is not designed to be a pathway to EU membership and it's really important that the union be clear and frank with its partners when it has these conversations there's no point in people in eastern partnership countries thinking that if they jump hurdle after hurdle after hurdle after hurdle the door will open and they will become members that's very different to saying that they will never become members because that's not the position and it's certainly not the Irish position and it's not the European Union position and as Laurence said the council is going to be divided on that issue if that issue was put now there would be some member states well-disposed but the majority would not be and it would be a highly unhelpful and divisive discussion but neither of these two partnership countries looking or asking for that right now I think by way of illustration we saw the challenges around getting progress on north Macedonia and Albania earlier this year that's an indication of how fraught the enlargement agenda is for the European Union right now and there is real and understandable concern amongst many members including Ireland that the union is quite fragile at the moment not just dealing with Covid but dealing with Brexit and dealing with you know populism and expanding our membership into regions that have their own profound challenges would be not in the union's best interest right now I mean my view and the government's view is that if we work the association agreement and the DCFTAs if we work on the things in the partnership that make a difference to people's real lives the economy transport climate if we further integrate through those areas then over time the issue of candidacy or membership will not seem as far fetched as it once might have been so nobody in Europe is going to say this is a pathway but they're equally not going to be emphatically and say it will never happen so what we have to do on the partnership side and what the what the countries who are in the partnership have to do is work through the hard grind of practical issues to to reduce the number of differences and at the same time to address the very real issues around governance and corruption and the second category of questions yeah I mean I think that there is a reason Ireland is one of the most pro-European countries because despite the makes mistakes we made nationally that the overwhelming number of Irish people believes that our our relative economic prosperity the level of social progress and crucially the way we lifted our eyelids from our relationship with the UK and took a more global perspective is overwhelming me due to our membership of the European Union now maybe that's overstated but I think that that's that is a good feeling amongst the Irish population and I think what crucially we did that maybe our neighbours didn't do is our leaders and our people went to Brussels and did not present it as they prevented Brussels doing things to us but that Europe and Brussels was something that opened doors to opportunity that we had to walk through so from day one you have to tell your people a positive narrative about Europe if you go down the track of of creating a defensive narrative of highlighting the things you achieved as political leaders in Brussels against the wishes of the European Union then you create a negative narrative which is very hard to escape from yeah it's self-reinforcing isn't it um a question from Mikhailo Hurley is about about the environment and about the deliverables within the eastern partnership he asks what progress has been made on environmental supports for the eastern partnership and what have the eastern partnership countries done to enhance their contribution to this goal I think Lawrence mentioned the climatological and environmental dimensions at the beginning I might start here perhaps with Vladimir if I may on the environmental dimension and the deliverables thank you well indeed the environment is probably one of the the area where the the change is not that easy to get because it's usually it means a lot of changing regulations the practice the habits of the people but in the last couple of years we were working very actively on that we have been changing all our legislation on energy for example on on energy efficiency the also on waste management so we have been putting in place a robust legal legal framework to to start changing the further the implementation I think a big game changer for us will be the european green deal this is one of the announced five areas for cooperation with the eastern partners we're really really looking forward to to to work together with you on green transition and making our economies more climate neutral that that's very important this week I think our but also I guess other georgia crane who have been also joining the european green week we're trying to in the ministry to implement some initiatives on for example waste management separating recycling recycling so we're fully committed in our negotiation with EU now the new association agenda let's say the a political document which setting the priorities in what for next year so environment is there so we will be working very actively with you on that and having on the base our commitments our international commitments on sustainable development and fighting the climate change as well so that remains one of the it will be one of the biggest priority for future years for sure thank you and Salome yes thank you indeed the green is very high on the agenda now with the EU within the EU member states but this is also very high on our agenda as well it's not easy because it is also linked with lots of reforms and quite costly reforms but at the same time we are committed to catch up and be the active part of that just very recently and also blood mentioned that this is also a part not only within the eastern partnership but also within our association within our agreements association agreements and just very recently we have adopted energy efficiency package of course this is not that much this is not the end of the road i mean there is still a lot to do but we are definitely inclined to work with the EU with the EU member states with the partners to contribute to the green energy thank you and Marina yeah we discussed this issue how to deeper our cooperation during the recent EU Ukraine summit so Ukraine has an ambition to approximate its policies and legislation with the european green deal so we continue to work together with the EU to implement all our ideas in this particular sphere and if you if i may i would like to come back to the disinformation because it's very important direction on our further cooperation within the eap we counter cyber threats and disinformation might become the new area of cooperation between eap and states and the EU and we propose to invite the partner states to the workshops and conferences held by the european center of excellence and countering cyber threats and widening the network of european citizens offers in the partner states thank you very much indeed marina another question from Dara mariarty who is a researcher with the institute it's a question to each of the representatives from georgia moldova and ukraine but laurence and joe you were quite welcome to have a go at this as well it's a very timely question are you hopeful that a change of administration in the united states with a harder line potentially on russia dara suggests will give renewed impetus to u.s engagement in the region so does the prospect of a biden administration come the 21st of january is it an attractive one do you see it as something that will help you in and of itself but also help in this kind of cooperation around european integration and i'm not your marina perhaps you might like to begin again there the prospect of a biden administration what do you think that means for ukraine we have everybody's on support in fighting against russian aggression so we i'm sure that we will have a very good relationship and cooperation both with the biden future possible administration and with the trump administration as well yes i'm glad i'm here thanks uh speaking of moldova i think the u.s engagement wasn't really depending on the administration in in big strategic terms let's say in in washington it was constant and i think u.s in terms of reforms priority for reforms i think us and you goals are more or less the same so it's it's no competition it's cooperation between you and us on on main goals to to achieve in changing the democratization there will flow on other things so i would imagine that the major change in terms of view on moldova there will be no major change it will be the same the same let's say goals to to achieve to improve situation here thank you and salome from the georgian perspective yes thank you i mean what i could say is that the u.s has been the strategic partner for georgia for years now whether with the republicans or the democrats so we're having in our country democratic development is a by bipartisan support from us so whoever is coming and who is go who whose administration is going to be there in the white house after these elections i don't think that will have any impact especially on our european integration part definitely u.s is supporting us in terms of democratic development economic development but that has no direct contact or link with the european integration part and we definitely hope that in the future whoever wins these elections the support that our strategic partner is giving us will continue in the years to come thank you i'm not sure if you want to add something laurence and joe will a biden's administration the prospect of it does it make a material difference to e u u.s relations come 2021 i mean what i can say um is that over an experience of 20 years in working in in the broader europe if i can put it that way when we have a strong e u u.s transatlantic relationship that's good for the e u and it's good for our partners so i hope that what comes out whatever color that there will be a strong commitment um on the side of the u.s administration to working um for um a brighter future also with georgia ukraine and moldova and i'm confident that that will be the cases our panelists have said thank you and joe um well you've stressed several times uh that this is an on-the-record briefing so um i i think that's reflected in the nature of the answers you've received and i would just fully align with what laurence has just said there okay thanks very much um a very interesting question now on security cooperation and it comes from the ambassador of bulgaria uh ambassador caro joeva and she asks about the perspective again of our three eastern partnership partners um what do you think is the value added in security cooperation via the european union in the c sdp framework uh or separately uh in and around nato so perhaps you would just speak to um existing modes of security cooperation and how they are best delivered through the c sdp and or through nato perhaps bladamere you would like to begin here sure uh in my case the answer will be shorter because we are a neutral country we don't have ambition to join nato that's uh so we we try to indeed develop uh the security cooperation with e u the c sdp is the main area for the moment we've been deploying a few of our experts military experts in some of the c sdp missions not too many this is this costs to to the budget but even now i think we have a doctor a medical officer in mali in c sdp mission in ali and another one have been just reduced because the mission has been reduced and we will be working of course to rotating and maybe increasing this presence in c sdp missions so that's one what we want to let's say increase yes indeed the dialogue on on hybrid threats on as i mentioned my presentation on cyber security let's say this emerging threats type of cooperation would be would be one of the future goals so i would yeah i will also high-level security dialogue georgia has won we are also aspiring to to have one so to have a platform for exchanging with you on very security issues i would put it like that thank you yeah and marina yeah as i said before we cannot build this successful eastern partnership without responding to partner security needs the ongoing conflict hybrid and cyber threats which we all face requires new security platform to be established within the ap and besides the participation of the interesting ap countries in the passcode programs we also propose such and initiatives in order to intensify our common efforts as setting up an ap eu east dot com panel for discussing issues related to tecland disinformation and elaborating proper solution as i just mentioned then envisaging participation of the eastern partners in the event of the european centers of excellence for countering hybrid threats allowing engagement of the interested partners in the work of the eu agency for network and information security and the eu rapid alert system so we are very much interested to deeper our cooperation in this particular field and finally for the georgian perspective again salome thank you very much indeed since 2017 we're having actually a high-level strategic dialogue with the eu and this is the format we discuss where we discuss issues of high importance for us and for us that is definitely the conflict with russia at the same time we're also discussing such issues the cyber security hybrid threats and many many others and not to forget that european union is the core chair at the geneva discussions and not to forget that the european union was the mediator to come to conclude to bring to conclusion the ceasefire agreement with russia during the war in 2008 back in 2008 when it comes to our participation in the cstp missions definitely we're participating in mali we're participating in the central african republics with nato as well we're having very close relations you know we're a candidate country we're having a np ngc meetings on a regular basis and georgia has shown i think and has proven throughout the years that we are not the country who is only getting the benefits we're also the country who is contributing greatly and also without the ultimate goal of our our soldiers who are participating in the missions we've been throughout the years participating in the ice of mission in afghanistan and we're still staying in the in the mission in afghanistan under the nato surveillance thank you thanks um we are coming towards the end now but there are two more questions one of them from andrew gilmore of the institute and andrew's question is about energy and principally to lauren santu selomi it's he says the european commission has provided significant support to the black sea connectivity initiative and he would like if you could perhaps provide us with some practical examples of how this initiative has fared uh to date and actually it's a question i often ponder i spend a lot of time on the black sea myself on the bulgarian beautiful bulgarian coast and i sort of as i gaze out to see i wonder about what kind of patterns of cooperation around wind power for example have been developed so perhaps lauren's you could go first sure thank you very much and thanks to andrew for this very interesting and timely question actually because we've just had the visit of the prime minister of georgia to brussels i'm sure selomi will say talk about that and this is very high on the agenda between relations between the european union and georgia and i mean clearly the black sea is is crucial um and i mean that is crucial in a number of ways i think it's a simply transport to start with i think one of the areas we're looking at is how can we further strengthen ferry links precisely as you say john with um bulgaria or rumania uh and and strengthen those links and of course um you talk of energy a major uh projects are the southern gas corridor tap and ensuring the flow of of gas in particular across the Caucasus uh across the black sea and reaching both through the western Balkans and eventually the european union so i mean this is a major infrastructure project that we're engaged on with the european union but also with the european investment bank the european bank reconstruction development uh and and a key issue here on which i'd be very interested to hear selomi's comments is how can georgia strengthen its capacity in a deep seaport and there's a very lively debate going on about that we stand ready um to support that capacity because we like they believe in strengthening a connectivity across the black sea also digitally by the way there's a cable under the black sea and this is as we're in a digital event gets all the more important so thank you john thank you and selomi thank you very much thank you lauren's indeed uh our prime minister uh was in just recently in brasil's and his main point was two points many points actually but let me outline indeed the connectivity point because this is one of the let's say milestone for us you know indifference to uh ukraine or moldova has no land border with the european union and the only border that we have is the through the black sea but what is the black sea relevantly small black sea in the 21st century it's nothing and you know that u has already extended the tnt or the territory of georgia and the concrete projects have been already identified to finance but definitely there is a lot of space to feeling when it comes to strengthening connectivity across the black sea and we actually presented with two initiatives to the u one is development of the feeder ferry connections they cross the black sea so on the one side we're having georgia on the other side we're having bulgaria romania and ukraine and another project that we proposed is constructing a black sea underwater electricity transmission line between georgia and romania as contribution to the energy security and it will be definitely a very strong incentive to development of renewable energy sector and definitely we hope for the use active engagement in this process but when it comes to certain ports here georgia i think when if we're talking about the anaclea port i mean i'm not expert of course on that issue but as i know the government has already declared the does not is intending to declare the tender on on construction for its construction thank you very much indeed now we've got about three minutes or so left and in concluding i'd like perhaps to go back to each speaker and the question is what do you hope will come out of the next eastern partnership summit and looking ahead to the more medium to longer term how would you like to see the eastern partnership evolve perhaps i'll begin with lorenz thanks very much john and a pleasure to be here with such a distinguished panel and i think what we hope for from the eastern partnership summit and this despite the tension that we must recognize that the resumed hostilities between our minors of by john and also the backdrop of events and billers we very much hope the summit will provide a common vision between eastern partners and the european union on the priorities for future cooperation we set out our five i won't list them again and i think that's based on what citizens want so we hope that that will develop and i think success will be benchmarked and we're keen to set measurable targets to measure progress by by what difference it makes to the lives of people in the eastern partnership and explaining that both of them and to EU taxpayers is crucial to the success of this project thank you and joe yeah very similar i mean at the end of the day this is about this is not about bringing eastern partnership countries closer to europe this is about improving the quality of life for the citizens of eastern partnership countries and giving them the opportunity if they so wish to choose to increase their cooperation with europe so we would want on the values and rule of law issue to see that advance to the point where citizens can freely make their choices in those countries where they currently are not free to make those choices obviously that doesn't apply to these three and we would like to see increase cooperation and integration where appropriate on that range of practical areas that does make a practical difference to people's lives and where over time they will facilitate a greater political as well as economic integration with europe thank you very much um uh vladimir if you would like to go next uh i'll risk but i'll try to be a bit lyrical maybe look this ship has been on the seas for quite some time what we need now to clean up the bottom to have a friendly team to have and to have a new map uh and to to get to the to the lands so i hope after the summit we will have this wind and our so helping us in our direction and the the the sea water will be calm to allow the ship to move towards its its goal sorry for being lyrical but that's that's the general feeling i am but of course i will subscribe to whatever so marina and others will say well this is one of the reasons we like moldovan people so much you we share this sort of attachment to lyricism uh if you've seen our president you will understand exactly what i mean um marina would you like to go next we expect that next year brothel's aap summit will provide so so required political and strategic competitors for the aap and this summit is very important because it should test strategic reliability of this initiative and to pass the summit successfully uh as i said before we should remain committed to the founding principles differentiation uh during ownership and inclusivity as well as initiative main purpose to contribute to the partner's political association and economic integration within the EU and to sum up if you allow me to sum up our discussion i would like to address to my irish to our irish friends uh after the brexit you are in turn to get a flag from the UK on the leading role on the aap and even more so on the eastern flank through the EU and i hope we can count on you and if so uh you can count on us thank you very much indeed and finally to you Salomon um thank you very much i think i talked to in details what we expect from the eastern partnership summit sometime next year but let me reiterate that our expectation is that the eastern partnership the region as a whole will stay strategically important for the european union and we know that the eastern partnership is not about the membership we acknowledge that quite well but at the same time eastern partnership could definitely bring the process and could bring the relations of all the partners or all the partners to the new level with the relations with the EU and definitely uh as in five major policy area uh priorities i mean it should today's partnership should should bring some practical uh and tangible results for the citizens but at the same time not forget but it's not possible without a strong political support from the european union from brussels and member states definitely thank you yeah um thanks so much indeed Salomi um you echoed my very thought which was going to be my concluding thought was that this year more than any year in recent memory has reminded us that the problems we face are not problems we face separately but they are mostly collective action problems and the way you solve these problems is through functional cooperation across borders or at least there is much more to be gained by doing that rather as opposed to a policy of um opposition to such uh so i want to thank our speakers very much indeed to laurence merizeth to uh joe hackett in dublin uh to vladimir in um uh kishinev i think uh to marina and kiev and salome in tibelesi thank you so much for your contributions it was a really rich discussion and all the more welcome because we don't get enough opportunities to engage with and discuss the issues that predominate in uh eastern partnership countries and beyond so thank you very very much indeed on behalf of the institute