EU-Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum www.eap-csf.eu The EU-Eastern Partnership CSF has been launched with the aim of establishing cooperation between the civil society organizations from the EU and those from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The mandate of the CSF is to come up with common positions and recommendations to EU institutions and national governments that can be used to influence their decision-making process at the highest level. The EU-EaP CSF has a working group on democracy, human rights, good governance and stability, with a subgroup on human rights. EU-Central Asia Civil Society Seminars The EU-Central Asia Civil Society seminars are organized in between government-level dialogues on human rights. Originally, the idea was to organise civil society seminars annually with all five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) on a bilateral basis. However, following the suspension of seminars in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in 2009, the format has been changed to ad-hoc regional seminars, of which the last one was held in October 2012 in Tashkent. Regional parliamentary assemblies Other forms of engagement and access to EU policy makers are available through parliamentary assemblies, which gather members of the European Parliament and members of national parliaments. These assemblies typically include a standing committee that deals with human rights. 12 Members are encouraged to contact their own or European members of parliament sitting on relevant committees to raise the profile of their organisation and highlight issues relating to torture. EURONEST parliamentary assembly www.euronest.europarl.europa.eu/euronest/cms/home The EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly is a parliamentary forum of European Members of Parliament and delegates from the Eastern Partners’ parliaments which aims to promote political association and further integration between the European Union and the countries within the Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). It has a Standing Committee on Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy. EUROLAT parliamentary assembly www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/eurolat/ key_documents/flyer_eurolat_en.pdf The EUROLAT Parliamentary Assembly is the parliamentary forum of the EU-LAC (Latin America and Caribbean) summits. The assembly, which meets annually, is composed of members from the European Parliament and Latin America, including Parlatino (Latin American Parliament), Parlandino (Andean Parliament), Parlacen (Central American Parliament) and Parlasur (Mercosur Parliament); the Mexican and Chilean Congresses are also represented. EUROLAT has a Standing Committee on Political Affairs, Security and Human Rights which meets at least twice a year. Engaging with European Union foreign policy on the ground – an IRCT guide