An annual meeting of coordinators of European Union Information Centers in Ukraine took place in Ivan Franko National University of Lviv on March, 29-30, 2017. The meeting was organized by the EU Information Center of University.
During the meeting, 20 coordinators from Kyiv, Dnipro, Lutsk, Ternopil, Kherson, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mariupol, Chernivtsi, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Ostrog, Uzhgorod, Bila Tserkva, Kharkiv and Chernihiv discussed potential areas of cooperation between Information Centers and the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
The participants of the annual meeting also had the opportunity to hear about the prospects for young people within the EU programs (Erasmus +, Horizon 2020, Creative Europe), discuss and read the information sources of the EU Delegation, which was presented by Iryna Stadniychuk ( Press and Information Office of the EU Delegation in Ukraine).
An important part of the event were the trainings of specialist on communications Olexandr Kulchytskyi, who presented his formula for success in communication systems and explained how to make information work for personal advantage. The head of the parliamentary expert group on the European integration Denys Chernikov debated with participants about future relations between Ukraine and the EU.
The event Dean of the Faculty of International Relations of the University, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine Markiyan Malskyi noted that the activities of the Information Centers are an essential part of European integration of Ukraine. After all, in the times of a hostile public information campaigns it is extremely important to understand the processes that actually occur in the EU and worldwide.
The key point of the event was the meeting with the Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli, who said that the European Union considers the coordinators the key players in reforming our country.
According to him, the activity information centers should primarily focus on youth, but also be open to the whole society and the media. EU Ambassador is convinced that today it is extremely important to talk as much as possible about the EU, its activities, the main targets.
“Ukrainian society is particularly active and the EU Delegation welcomes the close cooperation with public organizations which share the ideals and goals of the European Union”, said Hugues Mingarelli.
Ambassador also stressed that the European Union is doing everything possible to help save Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. In addition, the EU supports reforms in Ukraine and the process of creating a socially oriented market economy.
There are now numerous programs in the European Union focused on reforms in the energy and the judiciary spheres, fight against corruption, development of entrepreneurship. According to Hugues Mingarelli, one of the main tasks of the Information Centers is informing society about these programs.
The coordinator of the EU Information Center in Lviv, Professor of the Department of Geography and International Tourism Nataliya Antonyuk said that Ukraine is experiencing a number of objective and subjective difficulties on the way to European integration, but the democratic transformation that is going on in the country owing to the integration are extremely important.
“Irrespective of whether the state will join the EU or not, if it meets its criteria, it will already speak of a high economic and democratic level of development”, said Nataliya Antonyuk.
Quoting the Ambassador of the European Union Hugues Mingarelli, the scientist stressed that the work of the Information Centers is an important mechanism the activity of of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
Nataliya Antonyuk shared plans for the future: “An important issue is the use of European grant funding. How to write and how to serve the grants is of interest for Ukrainian society. Information Center intends to prepare a series of events dedicated to the topic”.
“Annual meetings of the coordinators of the Information Centers are very important for us, because they unite efforts of participants from all over the country. During these days we summarized the work of the Information Centers in 2016, exchanged fresh ideas and experiences, and outlined the plans for this year. We believe that in addition to interesting and useful training sessions, the most important achievement and result of the meeting is the growth of like-minded people and trust in Ukraine, which allows to implement the main goal of the Centers: spreading European values and awareness of Ukrainians on the development of relations between Ukraine and the EU”, commented the Executive Coordinator of the EU Information Center in Lviv Halyna Protsyk.
Let us add that the annual meeting of the coordinators of the EU Information Centers was another event of the campaign “Building a Europe in Ukraine”, which the EU Delegation organizes all over Ukraine throughout the year. The campaign includes a series of awareness-raising activities (street actions, workshops, trainings, round tables, etc.), which are designed to promote European values and talk about the EU mission in Ukraine.
It is worth mentioning that the main objective of the European Union Information Centers is disseminating information about the EU and its policies, to assist universities and research centers to educate students and conduct research on European integration, as well as promoting students’ participation in debates on European issues.
The first European Documentation Centers were established back in 1963. Now there are more than 600 such centers in the world, which are functioning mainly at universities, national libraries and research centers. Today there are 23 EU Information Centers in Ukraine, the list of which is available on the website of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.