Background
The EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy presented in June 2016 provides an opportunity for the EU to close the implementation gap in its support to conflict prevention. While the document confirms that tackling root causes of conflict and promoting peace are priorities of EU external action, in practice conflict prevention remains a relatively minor dimension of the EU’s external relations, receiving limited political support and human and financial resources despite the strong support of key Member States such as Finland.
In this context, this meeting will look at the implementation of the EU’s commitments on conflict prevention, in particular on mediation support and security sector reform, focusing on improving practices and the impact of EU external action in fragile and conflict-affected countries.

Objectives
The overall objective of this meeting is to gather analysis and recommendations from civil society on making the EU commitments on conflict prevention operational. In particular, the meeting will look to:

• Analyse the EU Global Strategy and its commitments for conflict prevention
• Analyse and gather recommendations on the way forward for the EU’s support to dialogue and mediation
• Analyse and gather recommendations for a conflict-sensitive implementation of the new EU-wide Strategic Framework for Security Sector Reform by both the EU and its Member States

Format

Roundtable discussions under the Chatham House Rule with skilled facilitation to support interactive discussion. The meeting will be held in English.

Participants

The meeting will bring together 30-40 participants, including representatives of civil society peacebuilding organisations, academics as well as officials from the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and EU institutions.

For more information about this CSDN event or to register, please contact Nabila Habbida.