Dear colleagues,

It is our pleasure to invite you to a dedicated Workshop organised in cooperation with the Friedrich Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe (FES-ROCPE) under the auspices of the Austrian Presidency of the EU Council.

Connectivity in EU’s Wider Eastern Neighbourhood

Eastern Partnership External Relations Workshop
Thursday, 29 November 2018, 9.30-17.30
Austrian Central Bank (OeNB)
Otto-Wagner Platz 3, 1090 Vienna

Welcome and Opening
Thomas M. Buchsbaum, Special Envoy on Eastern Partnership, Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs and
Hannes Swoboda, President, Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)

Panel I: The development of the EAEU and the EU, and effective multilateralism
The panel will compare the very different stages of institutional and integrational developments of the EAEU and the EU as well as the respective goals and prospects of the two integrations.
Panelists: Dirk Schübel (European External Action Service, Brussels) - Andreas Stadler (Austrian diplomat and political scientist, Vienna) - Andrea Hofer (Austrian Central Bank, Vienna) - Ekaterina Dyachenko (Court of the Eurasian Economic Union, Minsk) - Alexandra Dienes (FES ROCPE, Vienna)

Panel II: Macro-economic aspects and effects of EU-EAEU cooperation and potential integration
The panel will discuss potential effects of integration, focusing on economic growth, trade and foreign direct investments.
Panelists: Nathaniel Young (EBRD, London) - Diana Galoyan (Armenian State University of Economics, Yerevan) - Viachaslau Yarashevich (International University “MITSO”, Minsk) - Valeryi Pyatnyckyi (Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, Thessaloniki) - Amat Adarov (wiiw, Vienna) - Peter Havlik (wiiw, Vienna)

Panel III: Sectoral connectivity, including infrastructure, energy and labor markets issues
The panel will deal with the priority areas transport infrastructure, energy and mobility, as well as issues related to labour market developments.
Panelists: Hermine Vidovic (wiiw, Vienna) - Yuri Shcherbanin (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) - Igor Burakovsky (Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, Kyiv) - Johannes Leitner (University of Applied Sciences, Vienna) - Michael Landesmann (wiiw, Vienna)

Enclosed, please find the Outline and Agenda of the Workshop, which will be held in English.

We kindly ask you to register for the event via the following link and look forward to seeing you at an insightful discussion. 


Yours sincerely,                               

Thomas M. Buchsbaum, Special Envoy on Eastern Partnership, Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs

Peter Havlik, Economist and Former Deputy Director, wiiw   

Alexandra Dienes, Research Associate, FES-ROCPE