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  • EU Eastern Partners and the ETF

    The EU and the Eastern Partnership countries met in Warsaw on 29 and 30 September 2011. The summit was an opportunity to renew the political commitment of the participating countries to the objectives of the initiative.

  • The ETF has a long history of working east of the EU, and currently runs a number of projects in the framework of the Eastern Partnership.

  • ‘We are mainly active in the area of economic cooperation,’ says Arjen Vos, who heads the ETF’s operations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. ‘But ETF experts are also involved in the Contacts between people platform.’

    SME development
    In 2011, the ETF joined the project that assesses policies on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the countries of the Eastern Partnership. This project is led by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the OECD.

    Within the project, the ETF contributes its expertise in the area of entrepreneurial learning and enterprise skills. ‘The overall aim is to stimulate SME development in the countries of the Partnership,’ says Mr Vos.

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    About the EU’s Eastern Partnership

    The EU’s Eastern Partnership was launched in May 2009 with six partner countries in Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus: the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Through this initiative, the EU supports reforms in the partner countries that are aimed at consolidating democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and an open market economy.

  • Employment policy review

    Another example of ETF engagement is the Black Sea Labour Market Review, a regional policy review concluded in 2010. It covered employment policies and their socio-economic contexts in Belarus, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The findings of the study fed into the programming of European Commission activities in the region.

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  • Ageing populations and continuing education

    In 2011, the ETF started a new project that aims at improving opportunities for lifelong learning in Eastern Europe. ‘With a declining demography,’ says Mr Vos, ‘the countries must start thinking how they will retrain their ageing workers to satisfy the demands of the labour market.’

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    Polish EU Presidency focuses on external dimension of education

    Education and training in the context of the European Neighbourhood Policy was the subject of a seminar in Brussels on 4 October, just a few days after the Eastern Partnership Summit in Warsaw.

    The event was organised jointly by the Polish Presidency of the EU Council and the ETF. Among nearly a hundred participants were representatives of the European Parliament, European Commission, Member States and the neighbouring countries.

    Grzegorz Chorąży from the Polish Ministry of Education said that one of the priorities of Poland’s EU Presidency is the development of skills for mobility.

    ‘Poland, as a country that earlier had greatly benefited from EU external assistance, believes that education and training can make a positive change in countries’ political and socioeconomic situation,’ said Mr Chorąży.

    The seminar was also an opportunity for ETF director Madlen Serban to present the practical examples of work done by the ETF in the European Neighbourhood.

  • Mobility partnerships

    In Georgia and the Republic of Moldova, the ETF provided support to mobility partnerships, focusing on the skills-dimension of mobility. In particular, it enabled the knowledge and experience related to the recognition of prior learning of returning migrants to be shared amongst policy makers.

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  • Words: Marcin Monko

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