On 7 May 2009, the European Union proposed a new form of cooperation, the Eastern Partnership, to six Eastern European countries – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. The objectives of the new EU initiative are: to promote democracy and good governance, social and economic development, sectoral reforms, environmental protection, strengthening the energy sector, and encouraging people-to-people contacts. The Eastern Partnership supports the European integration of the six Eastern European countries. The activities of the Eastern Partnership are focused on multilateral (the European Union – the six Eastern European countries) and bilateral relations (the European Union – individual countries participating in the partnership). The Eastern Partnership includes four thematic platforms and several special initiatives. In its Communication of 3 December 2008 (com (2008) 823), the European Commission underlined the need for active participation of civil society in the Eastern Partnership. RICDOG has been a member of the network since 2016 and is actively involved in the work of the first, third, fourth, and fifth working groups. At this stage, the chairman of the organization, Nugzar Kokhreidze, is the deputy chairman of the platform and co-coordinator of the third working group (environmental protection, climate change, and energy security). Before that, he was the co-chair of the fifth working group (social […]