(Yerevan, Armenia) On November 22nd at 14:00 at the Erebuni Business Center’s Erebuni Hall, The Open Society Foundations – Armenia in collaboration with the Open Society Georgia Foundation will be holding a public event titled “From Warsaw to Vilnius: at the crossroads – Armenia and Georgia”, where the Eastern Partnership Roadmap 2012-2013 monitoring reports for Armenia and Georgia will be presented and discussed.
The reports were a collaboration between Open Society Foundations – Armenia and Open Society Georgia Foundation that began at the start of 2013, as part of an effort to draw parallels between Armenia’s and Georgia’s EaP roadmap implementation progress. The report, consisting of a multi-lateral and bilateral dimension in two volumes, covers the key elements of the reforms agenda meant to bring both countries closer to initialing the Association Agreement in Vilnius. The multilateral dimension includes issues of mutual concern to both countries, such as electoral standards, media freedom, regional governance, and fighting cybercrime, while the bi-lateral dimension covers country-specific issues – in Armenia’s case, political association and economic integration, democratic reform, and human rights. The reports were prepared with the direct involvement of independent experts and civil society representatives from both countries, who provided valuable insights and demonstrated a productive partnership.
This discussion will provide a forum for engaging in informative and constructive dialog on the implementation of the EaP Roadmap, and will be useful for comparing and contrasting the progress between the two countries. The event will begin with opening remarks from the Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Traian Hristea, and OSF-Armenia Executive Director, Larisa Minasyan. National experts from both countries will then discuss the key findings of their respective reports. First, Varuzhan Hoktanyan of Transparency International Armenia will discuss electoral standards and practices. Next, Anahit Chilingaryan of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor Office will speak about the independence of the judiciary and the latest developments in this realm. Levon Barseghyan of the Asparez Journalists Club will then speak about media freedom in Armenia. Finally, Vano Chkhikvadze of Open Society Georgia Foundation will present the key findings of Georgia’s EaP Roadmap monitoring results.
The event will conclude with a public discussion involving the team members who participated in preparing the report, along with government officials, representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations, civil society and media, around the issues raised in the report and possible ways of addressing them. The full event will be livestreamed by the Media Center at www.media-center.am, and will be available for later viewing at www.osf.am.