The conference is co-organised by the Ministry of National Defence and the Eastern Europe Studies Centre on September 26-28 in Vilnius. Officials, academicians, representatives of civil society and NGOs of the six EaP countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) and from EU member states and the European External Action Service will discuss security challenged faced by Eastern Partnership countries, and opportunities for practical cooperation between EU members and EaP countries in the implementation of the EU Global Strategy. The conference will also address the view on the ongoing conflicts and crises worldwide, and the need to increase public security and resilience to threats.
The opening address of the conference will be delivered by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, Minister of Defence of Georgia Levanas Izoria. It is the third conference in the series organised to stimulate discussion on European Union-Eastern Partnership common security and defence cooperation, ways and means to strengthen and deepen it. Generalisations and conclusions of the conference will be used as proposals for the Eastern Partnership Summit declaration in November in Brussels.
Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a European Union initiative launched in 2009. It is an eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The EU cooperates with its southern and eastern neighbours to achieve the closest political association and economic integration possible.
In late 2014 Lithuania initiated establishment of a Trust Fund to foster a more active involvement of EaP countries in the Common Security and Defence Policy. The Trust Fund was established by the Defence Ministries of Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, UK; and Slovakia, and is administered by the Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania. The Trust Fund finances participation of EaP countries’ representatives in EU operations, exercises and courses.
