Four new PASOS policy briefs were released at “Democracy, Partnership, Enlargement – Challenges for Europe, Challenges for the Polish EU Presidency”, the network’s annual policymakers/think-tanks conference 25 November.

The papers address such diverse topics as new media, visa liberalisation, the revolutions in North Africa, and the European neighbourhood.

Following is a description of each brief and a link to download the paper:

These policy studies were created with the support of the International Visegrad Fund:

What kind of EU does the Mediterranean need? (Alexander Duleba & Lucia Najšlová)

This paper proposes modalities for stronger and more efficient EU engagement in the reform of Arab countries that recently underwent revolutions, without necessarily putting extra burden on financial expenditure allocated for the region. It argues that the EU policy in the Mediterranean has to be grounded in structured partnership with non-state actors, which engages them in all phases of policy cycle including planning of goals and monitoring of results of EUMED cooperation. This policy study was carried out with the support of the International Visegrad Fund.

From the network to the streets: Online tools and democratization in Egypt and Belarus (Alek Tarkowski, Basem Fathy and Dzianis Melyantsou)

This policy brief includes two case studies – Egypt and Belarus – that show how digital communication technologies were used in recent protest activities in both countries. Based on interviews with civil society activists and an analysis of the process, it provides recommendations to EU policymakers and
argues for stronger EU endorsement of civic freedoms, including an uncensored internet.

Friendly Neighbours: Increasing the Potential of European Neighbourhood Policy Cross-Border Cooperation Initiatives (Andrey Demidov & Sara Svensson)

This policy brief looks at the EU’s promotion of integration and cooperation along its external borders and draws policy recommendations from the experience on the ground. The policy brief focuses on the local level, on people and communities living close to the borders as represented by political administrations (local governments) and civil society organizations. The brief starts with an analysis of the current practice of the crossborder cooperation initiatives of the ENP and the partnership with Russia.
The following policy study was written as part of the PASOS project, Paving the Road towards Visa-free Travel between the Eastern Partnership countries and the EU. The project is being carried out with the support of the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) of Open Society Foundations:

No shortcuts on the road to freedom of movement for the EU’s Eastern neighbours (Piotr Kaźmierkiewicz and Nadya Dimitrova)

This study identifies opportunities and barriers to the process of visa liberalisation between the European Union (EU) and the states of the Eastern Partnership, in particular Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. Attention is paid to two key factors: technical, involved in the process of adoption, implementation and evaluation of action plans, and political, centering on the will of the two parties (EU and EaP states) to move the process forward and complete it successfully.