We have the pleasure of inviting you to the next congress of the European Movement International (EMI) on “Fostering Civil Society’s role for further European integration in the Eastern Partnership countries”, taking place on 20 – 21 October 2011 in Yerevan, Armenia.

This congress will have the aim of bringing together civil society actors as well as local and national public authorities from the European Union and the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), in order to provide a platform of exchange to discuss regional civil society activities and the sustainability of reform processes. In the long term perspective, the objective is to contribute to the democratization of the Eastern Partnership states.  

During the 2-day programme, participants will have the possibility to share best practices and work on a political strategy that is supposed to provide recommendations on the further development of the regional civil society dialogue. The strategy will be a concrete expression of an unprecedented kind of cooperation in the history of the post-soviet states and deliver a set of options to keep eradicating the biggest problem of the development of Civil Society in the region: the gap between the public authorities and citizens in the policy-making process.
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Title: "Fostering Civil Society’s role for further European integration in the Eastern Partnership countries"
Date: 20 – 21 October 2011
Invitation: For the invitation (PDF), please click here
Agenda: For the agenda (PDF), please click here
Registration: For the registration form (Word Doc), please click here
Please confirm your participation at the latest by 16 September 2011.
Note that your registration is only valid upon later confirmation by the EMI. 
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Background information:
As the oldest platform in promoting European integration, the European Movement International (EMI) has always strived for a more productive dialogue between civil society and public authorities.
Recently, the EMI launched a political debate and started to monitor actions aimed at the development of the dialogue between civil society and public authorities in neighbouring countries, particularly in candidate and potential countries (Congresses in Ljubljana 2009 and Istanbul 2011) and in countries of the Mediterranean (Congresses in Algiers 2006 and Alicante 2009).
The upcoming Yerevan Congress is to be seen in line with these previous congresses and as the next step of a long term commitment to contribute to an enhanced dialogue of civil society and public authorities at the highest level. The congress will be organised in cooperation with the National Council of the European Movement in Armenia. 
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For more details, please contact the EMI secretariat:

Irina Petrova
Phone: +32 2 508 30 82
Fax: +32 2 508 30 89
E-Mail: irina.petrova@europeanmovement.eu
European Movement
Square de Meeûs 25
B-1000 Brussels