European Union External Relations with Focus on the Eastern Partnership and Russia

European Union External Relations with Focus on the Eastern Partnership and Russia

Roundtable discussion

Monday, 26 September 2011

14:30 - 16:00

Roundtable discussion is a part of the Conference and will focus on the topic of “European Union External Relations with Focus on the Eastern Partnership and Russia”. The Roundtable will serve as a practical and visible starting point for inauguration of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and its focus towards research on Eastern Partnership.

The event will be open to public authorities, NGOs, civil society.

Background

The geo-political position of Latvia and shared history has an important role in EU external relations, e.g., geographically Latvia has the longest EU external border with Russia. The countries of Western Newly Independent States (NIS) (Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia), the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) are of great interest for external political and economic relations for Latvia with potential for further development. This event conforms with the objectives set out in the documents of the Government of Latvia.

Prominent speakers from academia, national government, European Commission, Eastern Partnership countries will be invited to make presentations on the first day of the conference as will as at the Roundtable debate.