Virtual Fireside Chat on "The Future of the Eastern Partnership Ahead of the Brussels Summit" with Mr Lawrence MEREDITH

On 21 May 2020, the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair hosted a Virtual Fireside Chat on "The Future of the Eastern Partnership Ahead of the Brussels Summit". The event featured Mr Lawrence MEREDITH, Director for Neighbourhood East and Institution Building in the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) of the European Commission.

One year after the EU and its six eastern neighbours, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Eastern Partnership, the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy have recently published a joint communication, entitled ‘Eastern Partnership policy beyond 2020. Reinforcing Resilience – an Eastern Partnership that delivers for all’. This document, serving as a blueprint for discussions on the future of the cooperation framework at the upcoming Eastern Partnership Summit, to be held in Brussels on 18 June 2020, proposes to put five policy objectives at the centre, namely:

1. Together for resilient, sustainable and integrated economies;
2. Together for accountable institutions, the rule of law and security;
3. Together towards environmental and climate resilience;
4. Together towards a resilient digital transformation; and
5. Together for resilient, fair and inclusive societies.

Embedded in an assessment of the first ten years of the Eastern Partnership, this virtual fireside chat addressed the making of the new communication and discussed its propositions in light of the upcoming Summit at times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Lawrence MEREDITH has been Director for Neighbourhood East and Institution Building in DG NEAR in the European Commission since 1 December 2015. In 2015, he was Head of Strategy in DG NEAR, and led work on the European Neighbourhood Policy Review. Previously, he has worked for 10 years on Enlargement Policy, both as Head of Strategy and Head of the Kosovo Issues Unit. He worked in the Cabinet of Commissioner Louis MICHEL on Southern Africa & the Pacific. Mr MEREDITH studied Russian & French at Oxford University.

More information on the Joint Communication can be found here.

Photo courtesy: euneighbours.eu