The EU Mayors for Economic Growth Initiative gives voice to local administrations of the Eastern Partnership countries at the Forum of EU-EAP Local Leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 24-25 October 2019

17 January 2020

 

The Forum “10th Anniversary of the Eastern Partnership: Localising Sustainable Development Goals”, hosted by the city administration of the Lithuanian capital, brought together the key actors behind the EU Eastern Partnership Initiative in order to take stock of the 10 years of the Initiative’s operation and discuss a vision of the way forward. The participants of the event came from PLATFORMA, the main organizer of the Forum, EC DG NEAR and DEVCO, the Council of Europe, the European Committee of the Regions, EBRD, representatives of EU cities, Associations of Local Authorities from both Western Europe, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova.

The M4EG Initiative organized and moderated a dedicated thematic panel “Prosperity on each territory”, where the M4EG Secretariat presented the progress of the Initiative implementation to date, while selected of M4EG signatory representatives from Kapan (Armenia), Baghdati (Georgia), Polotsk (Belarus), and Carpineni (Moldova) presented their efforts and achievements in promoting local economic development in their territories.

The important role of trans-border initiatives, closer bilateral partnerships, and broader experience sharing in forwarding the goals and objectives of the Eastern Partnership Initiative was a key message of the event, reiterated by both the participants and the organizers of the Forum.