Deputy Head of the German Mission to Ukraine, Mr. Wolfgang Bindseil and the Director of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Ukraine, Gabriele Baumann.

Panel Discussion on "Eastern Partnership results and perspectives for Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine" with the former Minister of Education and Science of Georgia Prof. Dr. Ghia Nodia, Andrij Nadzhos from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Hennadiy Maksak from the Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”.

Third day: Debate with four Members of the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verhovna Rada and the Euro-optimists group: Mustafa Nayem, Svitlana Zalishuk, Olena Sotnyk and Ivan Krulko.

Questions to Prof. Dr. Yevhen Bystritskyj on "Main challenges to political parties in the 21st century.

Group work in the workshop "Thinking outside the box and defining a core message" by Klaas Jan de Vries, Eduardo Frei Foundation.

Foto of the organizers and trainers from the first day: Isabel Weininger (KAS), Klaas Jan de Vries (EFF), Gabriele Baumann (KAS), Ihor Kohut (USAID Rada Program), Nadija Afanasieva (UIIP), Jan Mulder (EFF) und Rostyslav Tomenchuk (UIIP).

Study visit group in the Civil Society Organization "Reanimation Package of Reforms".

Study visit group to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on European Integration.

Group of participants who presented their own success story as Young Eastern European Leaders in TEDx presentations.

Group picture of the participants of the EPLC Forum 2018 with the Eurooptimists on the last day.

Eastern Partnership Leaders for Change Forum gathered on March 15-17 participants from civil society and political parties from Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. In three days they attended skills workshops, panel discussion, TEDx presentations and study visits, where they were able to exchange and build a sustainable network for pro-European leaders from the three countries with association agreements with the European Union.

Empowering young leaders for civic and political activism – with this goal the new format for political education was launched in summer 2016. The project is organized by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute for International Politics in partnership with the Eduardo Frei Foundation from the Netherlands. In a competitive selection process, about 120 participants are selected every year for regional seminars all over Ukraine. Following the regional seminars, the most engaged and outstanding participants are invited to the forum in the following year, which was held this time from 15th to the 17th of March 2018 in the Ramada Encore Hotel in Kyiv. There are now over 300 Alumni, who keep in touch through an online social media platform.

On the first day, the organizers were joined by Deputy Head of the German Mission to Ukraine, Mr. Wolfgang Bindseil, who pointed out the importance of Eastern Partnership for Europe and the German government. The subsequent discussion with Yevhen Bystritskyj, from the philosophical Institute of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine was followed by the first round of workshops. Jan Mulder from the Dutch Eduardo Frei Foundation (EFF) touched upon the topic “Dealing with conflict situations”, “Parliamentary Communication” was discussed by the Head of the USAID RADA Program, Ihor Kohut and “Thinking outside the box and defining a core message” by Klaas Jan de Vries (EFF). In the evening, participants watched a movie from Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation Ukraine on the “Way towards European Unity” Шлях до мрії Літопис європейської єдності and subsequently talked about the current political, economic and public situation in the European Union member states.

Day two started with three different study visits, that participants could choose from – either to a discussion in the Rada Committee of European Integration with Bogdan Ferens, to the Delegation of the European Union with His Excellency the Ambassador Hugues Mingarelli or to the Ukrainian Civil Society Organization “Reanimation Package of Reforms”. The participants enjoyed the practical part to see decision makers and civil society organizations at their work and to be able to ask them questions on the progress and challenges of European Integration.

In the afternoon a vivid discussion on the Eastern Partnership results and perspectives for Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine was held with the former Minister of Education and Science of Georgia and current Professor at Ilia State University Tbilisi Prof. Dr. Ghia Nodia, with Andrij Nadzhos from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Hennadiy Maksak from the Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”. The second round of workshops on friday covered the topics “Corruption vs. Integrity”, “How to jump-start media relations and use of social media”, and “Communicating politics”. In the evening some participants voluntarily presented their own success story as Young Eastern European Leaders in the format of TEDx presentations.

The third day concluded with an engaged debate with four members of the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verhovna Rada and the Euro-optimists group: Ivan Krulko, Mustafa Nayem, Olena Sotnyk and Svitlana Zalishuk. The young participants were eager to discuss with the young and pro-European parliamentarians on the future of the three respective countries and the MPs showed with their presence the importance of this project - working with the youth of political parties and civil society organizations.

At the end of the workshop, the participants initiated follow up meetings and stated that these networks will be very useful for their future work. “Without this Forum I would probably have never met these friends from Moldowa and Georgia” – said an Ukrainian participant. Another one summarized: “Our goal is to integrate fully into the European family”.

For more impressions from the Eastern Partnership Leaders for Change, watch the video of the 2016 cohort here .