What We Do
EPLO’s work is built on the idea that sustainable peace requires sustained attention. In a political landscape where short-term security responses increasingly substitute long-term conflict prevention, we work to ensure that peacebuilding remains central to how the EU engages with the world.
EPLO does this through three interconnected areas of work: contributing civil society expertise to EU policy processes, convening dialogue between practitioners and policymakers, and managing the Civil Society Dialogue Network on behalf of the European Commission and the EEAS.
Policy work
Through our Working Groups, EPLO brings together the expertise of more than 50 member organisations to contribute to EU policy discussions on conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
EPLO translates that expertise into concrete contributions to EU policy processes, providing analysis, facilitating structured dialogue, and supporting well-informed decision-making across EU external action.
Events
EPLO convenes a wide range of events that bring together civil society practitioners, EU policymakers and field experts. These spaces foster exchange and deepen collective understanding of peacebuilding challenges and EU responses.
Our events are oftenly open to the broader peacebuilding community, not just EPLO members.
The Civil Society Dialogue Network
The Civil Society Dialogue Network (CSDN) is a structured mechanism for dialogue between civil society and EU policymakers on peace and conflict. Co-financed by the EU and managed by EPLO in cooperation with the European Commission and the European External Action Service, the CSDN has been running since 2010 and is now in its fifth phase.
The CSDN is unique: it is the only EU-level mechanism specifically designed to bring civil society expertise into EU peacebuilding policy discussions. Through policy meetings, geographic meetings, training seminars, publications and videos, it creates sustained, structured space for EU-civil society dialogue that would not otherwise exist.