Between a Rock and a Hard Place? Georgian, German and French Perspectives on European Values and Euro-Atlantic Integration

The Georgian Institute of Politics (Georgia), in partnership with Polis180 (Germany), and Argo (France) are implementing a joint project on European values and ways of better anchoring them in the Georgian and the EU societies. What are the main challenges to European values in states with EU ambitions and within the EU itself? What are European values in the first place? How can we foster these values in the EU and in the EU neighbourhood? What is the relationship between European values and EU accession?

Activities:

• Bringing together 24 German, French and Georgian young experts for a three-day workshop in Tbilisi (17-19 September 2018) in order to reflect on European values and the foreign and domestic challenges of Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration with local experts. The workshop will include an open policy lab where scenarios for the EU-Georgia relationship in the context of European values will be developed.
• Convening for a one-day public conference in Tbilisi on 20 September 2018, involving the young as well as senior experts from Georgia, Germany and France. The conference will discuss our scenarios and policy recommendations with the public.
• Publishing a joint policy paper and blog articles which reflect the discussions and results of the workshop and conference. Contributions from the workshop participants are strongly encouraged!
• Presenting the outputs to the German and French publics on events in Berlin and Paris in November/December 2018.

Our partner organizations:

Polis180 e.V. is a Berlin-based grassroots think tank for European and foreign policy founded by students and young professionals. Our aim is to understand and shape foreign and European policy according to the perspectives, interests and values of our generation. We seek to exchange ideas with opinion and policy makers, media representatives and multipliers and to provide a venue for dialogue across generations, institutions, and political parties. That way, we want to make German foreign and European policy more transparent, more participatory, and more inclusive.

Argo (Paris), officially founded in 2017, pools policy ideas and expertise through a crowdsourcing platform, allowing individuals regardless of age or profession to have a hand in shaping the policies that affect their lives. Argo reaches out to those voices across society that are hardest to hear, which aims at reducing the gap between policy and people and gives leverage for Argo to place their policy proposals with decision makers. Argo describes itself as inclusive, fact-based, global, nonpartisan, and optimistic.

Our supporters:

The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office in the framework of the programme “Expanding Cooperation with Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia”.