News & Events – Page 2

CiSEP trained civil society advocates for sustainable development in Ukraine

October 5, 2018September 19, 2018 by Grzegorz Szymanowski

19 Fellows of the Civic School for Sound EU Practice (CiSEP) successfully completed the training series on “Trade and Sustainable Development”.

The final workshop of the training series took place between 10-12 September 2018 in Lviv, Ukraine. The focus of this meeting lied on advocacy strategies for civil society organisations and how they can promote sustainability in Ukraine’s economic development as well as in the EU-Ukraine trade relations.

Experts from the Responsible Business Forum from Poland introduced CiSEP Fellows about the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, how can it help to achieve some of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as well as how to practically promote it with business representatives. Other activities of the Responsible Business Forum, like coordinating the EU Diversity Charter and promoting non-financial reporting of big companies, were also discussed.

Together with an expert from a Zagreb-based Society for Sustainable Development Design (DOOR) the Fellows learned how to prepare an advocacy campaign. Concentrating on topics like energy poverty, waste management and nature protection, the Fellows prepared their own action plans for an advocacy campaign that they discussed in groups.

A final exam on the last training day served as a way to check the Fellows’ knowledge after the whole CiSEP Level B “Trade and Sustainable Development” training series, which consisted of four seminars and took place between June and September 2018. 19 Fellows successfully passed the exam and will participate in a study trip to Berlin in October 2018.

Civic School for Sound EU Practice is implemented by Institut für Europäische Politik in cooperation with Lviv organisation of the Civil Network OPORA. It is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.

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CiSEP fellows studied social aspects of sustainable development

October 5, 2018July 25, 2018 by Grzegorz Szymanowski

Labour standards, governmental implementation plans and planning own monitoring projects were in the focus of the second and third CiSEP Level B trainings on „Trade and Sustainable Development” that took place in June and July.

The second training took place on 11-13 June in Kyiv, in which 22 CiSEP fellows dealt in detail with social components of the concept of sustainable development. The fellows studied standards and documents of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which serve as basis for many provisions of DCFTA Chapter 13 “Trade and Sustainable Development” in the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. They also became familiar with the work of the organization in Ukraine by working with its “Decent Work Country Programme 2016-2019”.

Furthermore, CiSEP fellows learned about the formats of civil society cooperation envisaged in Chapter 13 – Domestic Advisory Groups and Civil Society Forum. Since the Ukrainian side of the DAG is still not established, a representative of Georgian DAG shared her experience of its work. In the meeting with representatives of several Ukrainian ministries the fellows discussed the
implementation plans of DCFTA Chapter 13 and current challenges.

These implementation plans were put to the test in the third workshop, which took place on 16-18 July in Lviv. The participants discussed what monitoring means, received many tips from our trainer’s hand-on experience when conducting monitoring on the local and national level and finally designed their own monitoring projects of Ukraine’s EU association in the sphere of sustainable development. Another focus lied on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) – CiSEP fellows learned how they are conducted step by step and discussed the role of the civil society in this process.

The latter is important since in many countries it is the civil society organizations that control the correct application of EIA/SEA studies. In this context, the experience of Western Balkan CSOs presented by an expert from Bosnia and Herzegovina proved to be especially useful.

The CiSEP training series on “Trade and Sustainable Development” is a specialization training consisting of four seminars that started in May 2018. The final workshop will take place in September in Lviv. The Civic School for Sound EU Practice is supported by the Federal Foreign Office.

The devil is in the detail. 2nd CiSEP training on EU project cycle management

June 5, 2018June 5, 2018 by Constanze Aka

Our CiSEP Alumni have plenty of project ideas with the aim to bring Ukraine closer to the EU. They deal with participatory governance, health, ICT, and cultural heritage. Yet, a good idea is never enough. After all, every project realization requires sufficient funds and administrative capacity. For this reason,

Level B training cycle on Intellectual Property Rights in Ukraine concluded

May 15, 2018April 19, 2018 by Grzegorz Szymanowski

The fourth seminar dedicated to the DCFTA Chapter 9 “Intellectual Property” of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement took place end of March in Chernihiv. 19 fellows successfully graduated from the training series implemented by the Institute for European Politics within the Civic School for Sound EU Practice (CiSEP).

Between 26 and 28 March the Capacity Development Team of the Institute for European Politics together with local partner organization Polissya Foundation for International and Regional Studies implemented in Chernihiv the fourth and last of the CiSEP Level B (specialization) trainings on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Previous trainings took place in December, January and February in Kyiv and Chernihiv.

Within the program, a group of Ukrainian civil society representatives with different professional backgrounds (lawyers, scientists and journalists among them) studied the provisions of Chapter 9 “Intellectual Property” of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), part of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Apart from the documents’ provisions, the trainings concentrated on EU acquis on IPR, state of Ukrainian intellectual property system and main challenges on the way of Chapter 9 implementation.

Using the Project Cycle Management methodology (problem and objective trees) thorough the training cycle CiSEP fellows identified two main areas of Ukraine’s IPR system which need further improvement: public awareness as well as enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. Experts from EU trained them on designing effective public awareness campaigns and discussions with representatives of Ukrainian enforcement agencies helped to narrow down the areas needing action from the civil society. In the seminar in March they also learned on practical cases how to identify counterfeited products.

The training cycle ended with an exam. 19 successful alumni of the program will take part in the study trip to the EU in the beginning of June in order to learn more about the blocque’s acquis in the IPR field and learn about the work of relevant EU stakeholders in the field.

The Civic School for Sound EU Practice (CiSEP) is a training programme for active citizens and change-makers in Ukraine. It creates a network of Association Agreement specialists with the common goal of enhancing Ukraine’s European integration. CiSEP is kindly supported by the Federal Foreign Office.

Ukraine in the heart of the EU: CiSEP study trip to Brussels

April 9, 2018April 9, 2018 by Constanze Aka

From 20 to 24 March 2018 our CiSEP “EU Association Skills” alumni discovered the world of EU-Ukraine relations in Brussels.

After having dedicated several training months to EU association monitoring and legal harmonization, it was high time to dive into the who’s who of EU-Ukraine relations.

We were warmly welcomed by experts of the European Parliament, the Support Group to Ukraine, DG TRADE, EEAS, ECOSOC, BusinessEurope, CEPS, the European Endowment for Democracy, as well as the Mission of Ukraine to the EU.

A tool-box for EU Association

February 23, 2018January 25, 2018 by Constanze Aka

20 civic activists practice legal approximation, association monitoring and English public speaking

The third workshop of the CiSEP training series “EU Association Skills” gathered NGO members from all over Ukraine from 22 to 24 January in Odessa. Aim of the training is to provide our CiSEP fellows with a “toolbox” of methods and skills to contribute effectively to the EU association process in Ukraine.
During our first two trainings we laid our focus on EU legal analysis. Now, we introduced our fellows to the steps and methods of legal approximation. In first practical exercises our fellows got acquainted with the Table of Concordance – an obligatory tool when checking the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU legal provisions.
Our training session dedicated to public speaking on EU matters ensured the “feel-good-factor” of the training. Our CiSEP fellows boosted their presentation techniques in numerous practical exercises. The trainer conveyed the right attitude towards public presentations with a lot of empathy and humour.
Moreover, our group had the opportunity to discuss possibilities on regional NGO engagement with a colleague from the “National Coalition for Decentralisation” based in Niš in Serbia. On the basis of Serbian case examples they discussed topics such as regional cooperation, capacity development for smaller organisations, and communication with citizens on the one hand and national stakeholders on the other hand.

Institut für Europäische Politik implements this workshop series in cooperation with Odessa regional organization of All-Ukrainian NGO “Committee of Voters of Ukraine”. The project is kindly supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

New training cycle on Intellectual Property Rights

January 18, 2018January 16, 2018 by Grzegorz Szymanowski

New CiSEP Level B trainings for Ukrainian change-makers and civil society is dedicated to Chapter 9 “Intellectual Property” of the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). First out of four workshops took place in December in Kyiv.

Second CiSEP Level B Training “Association Skills” in Kyiv: EU Coordination, Communication and Public Speaking

February 23, 2018December 22, 2017 by Constanze Aka

Communication is not only the exchange of information and ideas but an important precondition for successful coordination and cooperation. In the framework of the EU-UA Association Agreement the civil society is often struggling with finding an effective communication strategy towards the citizens on the one hand and the local and/or national authorities on the other hand.

КОНКУРС ЗАЯВОК НА УЧАСТЬ: Рівень В CiSEP – Інтелектуальна власність

November 18, 2017November 17, 2017 by Martin Stein

Активні громадяни та агенти змін з усіх регіонів України запрошуються до подання заявок на участь у другому етапі Громадської Школи Дієвих Практик ЄС: Рівень В – Інтелектуальна власність!

Оголошення конкурсу заявок

Форма заявки на участь у CiSEP

КІНЦЕВИЙ ТЕРМІН ПРИЙНЯТТЯ ЗАЯВОК: ДО 30 ЛИСТОПАДА 2017 РОКУ.