Developing Scenarios for the Eastern Partnership beyond 2020 at the Regional Synergy Meeting of the Berlin Policy Hub
From 15–17 October 2019, the Berlin Policy Hub hosted its seven partner organisations from Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine for a regional synergy meeting. After several bilateral visits to Berlin, it was the first opportunity for all partner organisations to meet and exchange with their peers. The purpose of the event was to allow for networking among the partners and to foster regional synergies.
The meeting took off with a 1.5‑day scenario-planning workshop on the future of the Eastern Partnership beyond 2020. The participants worked with main drivers that will most likely shape the future of the Eastern Partnership. Particular emphasis was put on crisis & conflicts, prospective developments on EU-level, governance and democracy in EaP-countries, the role of Russia as well as the USA. A SWOT-Analysis was conducted to derive lessons for the strategic development of each organisation, using their strengths and opportunities.
The programme also included a public event on the future of the Eastern Partnership beyond 2020 with working groups composed of peer researchers from Berlin and associated EaP countries (Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia) and comments from the German Federal Foreign Office’s Special Representative for the Eastern Partnership Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth. The regional synergy meeting concluded with an internal reflection session on the partner organisations’ activities, sharing experiences and identifying opportunities for future cooperation.
The Berlin Policy Hub is part of the “Europeanization beyond Process” initiative supported by the Open Society Foundations. The hub established at IEP strengthens the network of researchers and think tankers from Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine with their German counterparts and offers them opportunities to present their expertise and research results in Germany.
