Eastern Partnership Facility
The Council of Europe is a permanent partner in the European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) initiative, contributing to platforms on “Democracy, Good Governance and Stability” (Platform 1) and “Contacts between People” (Platform 4), as well as chairing two experts’ panels on corruption and the judiciary. The Council of Europe and the European Union have developed a programme – officially known as a “Facility” to carry out measures developed as part of the platform on Democracy, Good Governance and Stability. Costing €4 000 000, the Facility was signed by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, and the Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Štefan Füle, on 15 December 2010. Although its initial implementaationperiod began on 1 March 2011 for a period of 30 months, it has now been extended until December 2014.
Its aim is to provide support to reform processes in the
six partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and
Ukraine) and bring them closer to Council of Europe and European Union standards
in core areas such as public administration and electoral standards; judicial
reform; fighting cybercrime and corruption, and promoting good governance.
Brochure on CoE EaP Facility - "results and achievements 2011-2013"
It provides a framework for addressing issues raised by
Council of Europe monitoring and advisory bodies, for mobilising expertise and
peer advice, and for facilitating exchanges of best practice among participating
countries. It will sustain momentum for the process of reform in each country
and provide technical assistance and advice through regional co-operation and
activities organised at a multilateral level. It will be divided into four
projects, as follows:
Project 1: Supporting
electoral standards especially in pre-electoral periods
Project 2: Enhancing
judicial reform
Project 3: Support measures against serious forms of cybercrime
Project 4: Good governance and the fight against corruption
The CoE EaP Facility has been extended and will be in
operation until December 2014 with a newly revised budget of 4.8 M. In 2014, the
co-operation activities will continue in three priority areas: ‘the reform of
judiciary’, ‘the fight against corruption’ and ‘the fight against cybercrime’.
The project ‘Elections’ has been discontinued.
The CoE EaP
Facility’s co-ordinating structure:
A CoE EaP Facility Steering Committee will be set up and
will enable all the main partners involved (i.e. the CoE, the EU and the
national authorities) to be provided with updated information on the projects’
implementation progress and to assess the impact of the CoE EaP Facility’s
projects in the targeted areas.
The mission of the CoE EaP Facility Steering Committee is
to assess and guide the CoE EaP Facility’s projects’ implementation, in order
to: ensure that the deliverables meet the requirements which were set for the
CoE EaP Facility, advise on decisions on the requirements for the CoE EaP
Facility’s projects, assess the monitoring and audit results, and supervise a
communication campaign following the visibility guidelines concerning, notably,
acknowledgement of EU financing.
The CoE EaP Facility Steering Committee will be composed
of: European Union representatives, CoE EaP Facility National Co-ordinators for
each EaP country and the CoE MAE’s involved in the CoE EaP Facility’s projects.
Three CoE EaP Facility Steering Committee meetings were
organised during the last implementation period, with the aim of evaluating the CoE
EaP Facility’s projects’ implementation, assessing the results achieved,
reviewing and adjusting (if necessary) the work log frame for the CoE EaP
Facility’s projects’ implementation.
The last CoE EaP Facility Steering Committee Meeting for
the implementation period October 2013 – June 2014, was held on 10 June 2014, in
Brussels.
Presentations:
Judiciary
The final CoE EaP Facility Steering Committee Meeting will
be held on 27 October in Brussels. The aim of this Meeting will be to provide
key stakeholders with updated information on the CoE EaP Facility implementation
results and achievements for the period June - October 2014, and more
importantly, to provide an overall and comprehensive assessment of the CoE EaP
Facility’s results and achievements (2011-2014).
