Europe-Georgia Institute (EGI) (Georgian: ევროპულ-ქართული ინსტიტუტი) – is a non-governmental organization and a pro-European think tank in Georgia. The Europe-Georgia Institute was founded by George Melashvili, Shalva Chkheidze and Revaz Topuria in 2015.
ევროპულ-ქართული ინსტიტუტი | |
 | |
 Interior of the Europe-Georgia Institute | |
| Abbreviation | EGI |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1 July 2015 |
| Founder | George Melashvili, Shalva Chkheidze, Revaz Topuria |
| Type | NGO / think tank / Foundation |
Tax ID no. | 404 496 700 |
| Legal status | Nonprofit organization |
| Purpose | Advancing democracy, human rights, peacebuilding, promotion of good governance, support the involvement of youth in democratic process. |
| Headquarters | Tbilisi, Georgia |
| Methods | Lobbying research consultancy |
Official language | Georgian, English |
President | George Melashvili |
Executive Director | Shalva Chkheidze |
Main organ | Board |
| Affiliations | European Liberal Forum |
| Website | egi |
The EGI states its mission is to advance democracy, the rule of law and free markets in Georgia and the Caucasus and empower a new generation of leaders to find solutions that are essential for Georgia’s development and for successful common future of the Caucasus. The EGI focuses its campaigning on issues, such as human rights, peacebuilding, promotion of good governance and supporting the involvement of youth in democratic process.
Together with EGI's volunteers and partner organizations all around Georgia and the Caucasus, and with support from different donors, the EGI works hard to improve Georgia's political culture, to provide a platform for policy level discussions and to enable citizens to make their voices heard. The EGI is the only organization in Georgia that implemented a nationwide Get out the vote campaign in 2016.
An essential area of the Institute's work is cooperation with youth. The Europe-Georgia Institute recognizes that young people have a specific role in society and face particular challenges. The Institute focuses on youth work and supports equality and non-discrimination and aims to ensure that all policies and activities concerning young people uphold young people's right to participate in the development, implementation, and follow-up of policies affecting them. To achieve this aim, the EGI encourages and promotes inclusive democratic participation of all young people in society and democratic processes, actively engages young people in the development, implementation, and evaluation of policies affecting the lives of young people. The EGI cooperates with all major Universities in Georgia and supports specific frameworks and activities to empower youth and ensure youth participation.
The Europe-Georgia Institute also analyzes Georgian and international politics, creates policy recommendations, and develops projects which contribute to a more open, democratic, and . A crucial area of work of the Institute is integration with European and Euro-Atlantic partners. The Institute aims to facilitate a broad civil consensus regarding foreign political issues. The EGI implements different actions to increase political literacy among various communities and created methodologies to increase civic participation.
The EGI emphasizes "independence and impartiality", and explicitly precludes political, economic, or religious factors in its decision making. EGI's principles and operational guidelines are highlighted in its Charter.
The Europe-Georgia Institute is an affiliate member of the European Liberal Forum, a European political foundation.
Projects
Your Voice, Our Future (YVOF) Campaign
The Europe-Georgia Institute, under the patronage and financial support from President Giorgi Margvelashvili, initiated the unprecedented campaign "Your Voice, Our Future" (YVOF), aiming to increase the involvement of Youth in the election process and to show the importance of one single vote.
The core idea of this project was the importance of a vote for future generations, focusing on the fact that in Georgia the Youth usually is less active in elections than any other age groups.
Enjoying unprecedented support from President Giorgi Margvelashvili, the Europe-Georgia Institute created a network of 500 young men and women from all around Georgia and held an unprecedented campaign to promote participation in elections; later, the participants of "Your Voice, Our Future" became core of the #Initiative project, aiming to increase the participation of Youth in civil life.[non-primary source needed]
#ConstitutionBelongsToAll – Constitution Day 2017 Campaign
The Constitution of Georgia was approved by the Parliament of Georgia on 24 August 1995. Since then the 24-th of August is celebrated as the Day of Constitution – to highlight this important date, the Europe-Georgia Institute initiated various projects. As a result, more than 40 activities were held to promote constitutional values and raise awareness on constitution in 28 different regions of Georgia.
#Initiative Project
The #Initiative Project aimed to create a network of active students to promote active civic life. During the project more than 500 activities were financed in more than 20 regions of Georgia, 5 summer and winter schools were organized to empower the active youth groups all over Georgia. As a result of the project a nationwide youth network of active citizens was created, these groups are united under #Initiative network and are coordinating and collaborating on local and national issues
Eastern Partnership and Visegrad Countries Countering Disinformation
One of the important achievements of the institute was the forum Eastern Partnership and Visegrad Countries Countering Disinformation. The forum took place on 13 February 2019. The Europe-Georgia Institute organized the forum Eastern Partnership and Visegrad Countries Countering Disinformation in cooperation with the Civil Development and Research Institute with financial support from Visegrad Fund. Key speakers were intensively discussing the existing challenges of a democratic society, threats and different means of countering disinformation in both developing and developed countries.
The event was dedicated to the security topics in the era of informational and smart technologies, countering disinformation and handling media challenges. The opening speech was held by the Ambassador of Ukraine to Georgia Igor Dolgov and Chargé d’Affaires of Czech Republic Jiri Preclik.
The primary goal of the project was to develop innovative approaches to fight Russian propaganda and other hybrid threats in the Caucasus region. The emphasis is put on improving media literacy and critical thinking skills in EaP and V4 communities. The forum consisted of 4 sessions: session 1 – Disinformation – Global Threat to Democracy?; session 2 – Impact of Disinformation on the EaP&V4 Communities; session 3 – Fake News and General Public: How to Stand Up to Disinformation?; session 4 – Disinformation and the Youth Resilience: Forging a New Generation of Leaders.
The last session of EaP&V4 Countries Countering Disinformation titled Disinformation and the Youth Resilience: Forging a New Generation of Leaders moderated by George Melashvili, President of the Europe-Georgia Institute (Georgia) and featured Eto Buziashvili, International Security Expert, (Georgia); Jonas Syrovatka, Programme Manager, Prague Security Studies Institute (Czech Republic); Zviad Adzinbaia, Founder and Visionary at Temocracy, (Georgia); Polad Muradli, Baku-based Independent Expert (Azerbaijan) and Artsiom Sizincau, journalist, Civil Society Research Center (Belarus).
Landmine free South Caucasus
The Europe-Georgia Institute and LiNKS, with a number of other partners, marked the on the 4th of April with a region-wide awareness campaign under the slogan “#Landmine free South Caucasus”. The campaign which ran from 4-10 held a number events in different of cities and districts of the region, and featured information material in Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Russian and English.
School children from the IDP community in Tbilisi were informed about danger of landmines. Addressing the event, Dennis Sammut, the Director of LINKS, the organisation that is co-ordinating the campaign Landmines Free South Caucasus, said that it was important that the messages of the campaign were being brought to the refugee and IDP community. In his introductory speech to the campaign, George Melashvili, the chairman of EGI, highlighted the necessity of peace message to be sent to Georgia's occupied regions.
The event in Yerevan highlights humanitarian aspects of demining work. After the end of the Round table Meeting participants joined a street action on Yerevan's Northern Avenue where children expressed their feelings on International Mine Awareness day through positive messages painted on the ground, whilst demining experts explained the process of demining to visitors to a special set up stand.
Freedom of Speech Campaign - 2019
Following statements of high-ranking Georgian officials threatening freedom of speech in Georgia, the Europe-Georgia Institute together with Institute for Development of Freedom of Information and with support from Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom South Caucasus initiated a campaign “Freedom of Speech 2019”.
Europe in a suitcase
The Europe-Georgia Institute and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation invited a group of European politicians, journalists and representatives of civic sector and academia to Georgia within the Europe in a suitcase project.
The opening event of the "Europe in a suitcase" project was dedicated to the United Kingdom and was held on 22 October 2019. The presenters were a representative of British Liberal Democrats, Imad Ahmed, an economist and a PhD researcher at University College London, who spoke about “The current political situation in the UK and the role of the Liberal Democrats in British politics” and former Ambassador of Georgia to the United Kingdom Ambassador Giorgi Badridze, who made a presentation about “Brexit: Implications for Britain and Europe”.
This meeting was the first attempt to create a tradition of Oliver Wardrop Discussions aiming to bring together British and Georgian politicians and young leaders and foster dialogue and cooperation between the countries and will be held annually.
After the opening in Tbilisi the project continued in Khashuri with presentation by participant from Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr. Valida Repova Niksic on Ethno-nationalist populism in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Gori with the presentation by participant from Ukraine Dr. Dmitro Iarovyi on Winner takes it all: Ukrainian society during and after the monocoalition of the presidential party in the Parliament. The participants also visited the occupation line in . The next day participants visited Marneuli, where Ataberk Ozcan, participant from Turkey, spoke on Between support and confrontation: Civic society, Media facing populism and Mtskheta, with Georgian participant Salome Rurua speaking about Populism as a threat to the global peace.
The final meeting was held in Telavi with a presentation by participant from Armenia Asya Malamyan on Are all populists the same (Observation of Political Agendas of Populists in post-soviet Countries) and followed by a presentation by a participant from Russia Nikita Lyakhovetskiy speaking about Populism in modern day Russia.
The “Europe in a suitcase” is the continuation of an international project series which up to 2013 had been implemented by the European Academy Berlin with the support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and other foundations.
References
- Trippe, Christian (15 September 2024). "Georgia's elections: Will voters lean to the EU or Russia?". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
- "Europe-Georgia Institute > About us". EGI.GE. Europe-Georgia Institute. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
- "ELF Autumn General Assembly – ELF grows further". European Liberal Forum. 20 September 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
- "The President of Georgia visiting members of YVOF campaign in Georgia's different regions". Archived from the original on 8 December 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
- Advisor to the President of Georgia, Ms. Chikhradze about the YVOF Campaign to TV Pirveli
- Projects
- "კონფერენცია დეზინფორმაციის წინააღმდეგ". Georgian Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- "დეზინფორმაციასთან ბრძოლა – ქართველი და უცხოელი ექსპერტები ფორუმზე თანამედროვე მედიაგარემოს გამოწვევებზე მსჯელობენ". Rustavi 2. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- Kaldani, Natia. "Agenda 13th of February, 2019". nopropaganda.info. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- In Tbilisi, school children from the IDP community are made aware of the hazard of land mines
- Yerevan event highlights humanitarian aspects of demining work
- Proposed Georgian defamation law ‘puts freedom of speech at risk’
- "Freedom of Speech- International Black Sea University". Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
- "Europe in a suitcase: Oliver Wardrop Discussions". Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
- "ევროპა ჩემოდანში – ხაშური". Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
- "ევროპა ჩემოდანში – გორი". Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
- TV company DIA
- "ევროპა ჩემოდანში – ხურვალეთი". Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
- "ევროპა ჩემოდანში – მცხეთა". Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
- "ევროპა ჩამოდანში – მარნეული". Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
- "ევროპა ჩემოდანში – თელავი". Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
Europe Georgia Institute EGI Georgian ევროპულ ქართული ინსტიტუტი is a non governmental organization and a pro European think tank in Georgia The Europe Georgia Institute was founded by George Melashvili Shalva Chkheidze and Revaz Topuria in 2015 Europe Georgia Instituteევროპულ ქართული ინსტიტუტიInterior of the Europe Georgia InstituteAbbreviationEGIFormation1 July 2015 9 years ago 2015 07 01 FounderGeorge Melashvili Shalva Chkheidze Revaz TopuriaTypeNGO think tank FoundationTax ID no 404 496 700Legal statusNonprofit organizationPurposeAdvancing democracy human rights peacebuilding promotion of good governance support the involvement of youth in democratic process HeadquartersTbilisi GeorgiaMethodsLobbying research consultancyOfficial languageGeorgian EnglishPresidentGeorge MelashviliExecutive DirectorShalva ChkheidzeMain organBoardAffiliationsEuropean Liberal ForumWebsiteegi wbr ge The EGI states its mission is to advance democracy the rule of law and free markets in Georgia and the Caucasus and empower a new generation of leaders to find solutions that are essential for Georgia s development and for successful common future of the Caucasus The EGI focuses its campaigning on issues such as human rights peacebuilding promotion of good governance and supporting the involvement of youth in democratic process Together with EGI s volunteers and partner organizations all around Georgia and the Caucasus and with support from different donors the EGI works hard to improve Georgia s political culture to provide a platform for policy level discussions and to enable citizens to make their voices heard The EGI is the only organization in Georgia that implemented a nationwide Get out the vote campaign in 2016 An essential area of the Institute s work is cooperation with youth The Europe Georgia Institute recognizes that young people have a specific role in society and face particular challenges The Institute focuses on youth work and supports equality and non discrimination and aims to ensure that all policies and activities concerning young people uphold young people s right to participate in the development implementation and follow up of policies affecting them To achieve this aim the EGI encourages and promotes inclusive democratic participation of all young people in society and democratic processes actively engages young people in the development implementation and evaluation of policies affecting the lives of young people The EGI cooperates with all major Universities in Georgia and supports specific frameworks and activities to empower youth and ensure youth participation The Europe Georgia Institute also analyzes Georgian and international politics creates policy recommendations and develops projects which contribute to a more open democratic and A crucial area of work of the Institute is integration with European and Euro Atlantic partners The Institute aims to facilitate a broad civil consensus regarding foreign political issues The EGI implements different actions to increase political literacy among various communities and created methodologies to increase civic participation The EGI emphasizes independence and impartiality and explicitly precludes political economic or religious factors in its decision making EGI s principles and operational guidelines are highlighted in its Charter The Europe Georgia Institute is an affiliate member of the European Liberal Forum a European political foundation ProjectsYour Voice Our Future YVOF Campaign The Europe Georgia Institute under the patronage and financial support from President Giorgi Margvelashvili initiated the unprecedented campaign Your Voice Our Future YVOF aiming to increase the involvement of Youth in the election process and to show the importance of one single vote The core idea of this project was the importance of a vote for future generations focusing on the fact that in Georgia the Youth usually is less active in elections than any other age groups Enjoying unprecedented support from President Giorgi Margvelashvili the Europe Georgia Institute created a network of 500 young men and women from all around Georgia and held an unprecedented campaign to promote participation in elections later the participants of Your Voice Our Future became core of the Initiative project aiming to increase the participation of Youth in civil life non primary source needed ConstitutionBelongsToAll Constitution Day 2017 Campaign The Constitution of Georgia was approved by the Parliament of Georgia on 24 August 1995 Since then the 24 th of August is celebrated as the Day of Constitution to highlight this important date the Europe Georgia Institute initiated various projects As a result more than 40 activities were held to promote constitutional values and raise awareness on constitution in 28 different regions of Georgia Initiative Project The Initiative Project aimed to create a network of active students to promote active civic life During the project more than 500 activities were financed in more than 20 regions of Georgia 5 summer and winter schools were organized to empower the active youth groups all over Georgia As a result of the project a nationwide youth network of active citizens was created these groups are united under Initiative network and are coordinating and collaborating on local and national issues Eastern Partnership and Visegrad Countries Countering Disinformation The last session of EaP amp V4 Countries Countering Disinformation titled Disinformation and the Youth Resilience Forging a New Generation of Leaders from left to right Eto Buziashvili International Security Expert Georgia Polad Muradli Baku based Independent Expert Azerbaijan George Melashvili President of the Europe Georgia Institute Georgia One of the important achievements of the institute was the forum Eastern Partnership and Visegrad Countries Countering Disinformation The forum took place on 13 February 2019 The Europe Georgia Institute organized the forum Eastern Partnership and Visegrad Countries Countering Disinformation in cooperation with the Civil Development and Research Institute with financial support from Visegrad Fund Key speakers were intensively discussing the existing challenges of a democratic society threats and different means of countering disinformation in both developing and developed countries The event was dedicated to the security topics in the era of informational and smart technologies countering disinformation and handling media challenges The opening speech was held by the Ambassador of Ukraine to Georgia Igor Dolgov and Charge d Affaires of Czech Republic Jiri Preclik The primary goal of the project was to develop innovative approaches to fight Russian propaganda and other hybrid threats in the Caucasus region The emphasis is put on improving media literacy and critical thinking skills in EaP and V4 communities The forum consisted of 4 sessions session 1 Disinformation Global Threat to Democracy session 2 Impact of Disinformation on the EaP amp V4 Communities session 3 Fake News and General Public How to Stand Up to Disinformation session 4 Disinformation and the Youth Resilience Forging a New Generation of Leaders The last session of EaP amp V4 Countries Countering Disinformation titled Disinformation and the Youth Resilience Forging a New Generation of Leaders moderated by George Melashvili President of the Europe Georgia Institute Georgia and featured Eto Buziashvili International Security Expert Georgia Jonas Syrovatka Programme Manager Prague Security Studies Institute Czech Republic Zviad Adzinbaia Founder and Visionary at Temocracy Georgia Polad Muradli Baku based Independent Expert Azerbaijan and Artsiom Sizincau journalist Civil Society Research Center Belarus Landmine free South Caucasus HALO Trust staff members explaining the danger of mines to school students in Tbilisi during the Landsmine Free Caucasus campaign organized by the Europe Georgia Institute and LiNKS The Europe Georgia Institute and LiNKS with a number of other partners marked the on the 4th of April with a region wide awareness campaign under the slogan Landmine free South Caucasus The campaign which ran from 4 10 held a number events in different of cities and districts of the region and featured information material in Armenian Azerbaijani Georgian Russian and English School children from the IDP community in Tbilisi were informed about danger of landmines Addressing the event Dennis Sammut the Director of LINKS the organisation that is co ordinating the campaign Landmines Free South Caucasus said that it was important that the messages of the campaign were being brought to the refugee and IDP community In his introductory speech to the campaign George Melashvili the chairman of EGI highlighted the necessity of peace message to be sent to Georgia s occupied regions The event in Yerevan highlights humanitarian aspects of demining work After the end of the Round table Meeting participants joined a street action on Yerevan s Northern Avenue where children expressed their feelings on International Mine Awareness day through positive messages painted on the ground whilst demining experts explained the process of demining to visitors to a special set up stand Freedom of Speech Campaign 2019 Following statements of high ranking Georgian officials threatening freedom of speech in Georgia the Europe Georgia Institute together with Institute for Development of Freedom of Information and with support from Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom South Caucasus initiated a campaign Freedom of Speech 2019 Europe in a suitcase The launch of the project Amb Giorgi Badridze and Imad Ahmed The Europe Georgia Institute and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation invited a group of European politicians journalists and representatives of civic sector and academia to Georgia within the Europe in a suitcase project The opening event of the Europe in a suitcase project was dedicated to the United Kingdom and was held on 22 October 2019 The presenters were a representative of British Liberal Democrats Imad Ahmed an economist and a PhD researcher at University College London who spoke about The current political situation in the UK and the role of the Liberal Democrats in British politics and former Ambassador of Georgia to the United Kingdom Ambassador Giorgi Badridze who made a presentation about Brexit Implications for Britain and Europe This meeting was the first attempt to create a tradition of Oliver Wardrop Discussions aiming to bring together British and Georgian politicians and young leaders and foster dialogue and cooperation between the countries and will be held annually After the opening in Tbilisi the project continued in Khashuri with presentation by participant from Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr Valida Repova Niksic on Ethno nationalist populism in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Gori with the presentation by participant from Ukraine Dr Dmitro Iarovyi on Winner takes it all Ukrainian society during and after the monocoalition of the presidential party in the Parliament The participants also visited the occupation line in The next day participants visited Marneuli where Ataberk Ozcan participant from Turkey spoke on Between support and confrontation Civic society Media facing populism and Mtskheta with Georgian participant Salome Rurua speaking about Populism as a threat to the global peace The final meeting was held in Telavi with a presentation by participant from Armenia Asya Malamyan on Are all populists the same Observation of Political Agendas of Populists in post soviet Countries and followed by a presentation by a participant from Russia Nikita Lyakhovetskiy speaking about Populism in modern day Russia The Europe in a suitcase is the continuation of an international project series which up to 2013 had been implemented by the European Academy Berlin with the support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and other foundations ReferencesTrippe Christian 15 September 2024 Georgia s elections Will voters lean to the EU or Russia Deutsche Welle Retrieved 16 September 2024 Europe Georgia Institute gt About us EGI GE Europe Georgia Institute Retrieved 25 December 2019 ELF Autumn General Assembly ELF grows further European Liberal Forum 20 September 2019 Retrieved 25 December 2019 The President of Georgia visiting members of YVOF campaign in Georgia s different regions Archived from the original on 8 December 2017 Retrieved 7 December 2017 Advisor to the President of Georgia Ms Chikhradze about the YVOF Campaign to TV Pirveli Projects კონფერენცია დეზინფორმაციის წინააღმდეგ Georgian Public Broadcasting Retrieved 19 February 2019 დეზინფორმაციასთან ბრძოლა ქართველი და უცხოელი ექსპერტები ფორუმზე თანამედროვე მედიაგარემოს გამოწვევებზე მსჯელობენ Rustavi 2 Retrieved 19 February 2019 Kaldani Natia Agenda 13th of February 2019 nopropaganda info Retrieved 19 February 2019 In Tbilisi school children from the IDP community are made aware of the hazard of land mines Yerevan event highlights humanitarian aspects of demining work Proposed Georgian defamation law puts freedom of speech at risk Freedom of Speech International Black Sea University Archived from the original on 23 September 2020 Retrieved 20 May 2019 Europe in a suitcase Oliver Wardrop Discussions Archived from the original on 25 February 2021 Retrieved 30 October 2019 ევროპა ჩემოდანში ხაშური Archived from the original on 29 October 2019 Retrieved 30 October 2019 ევროპა ჩემოდანში გორი Archived from the original on 29 October 2019 Retrieved 30 October 2019 TV company DIA ევროპა ჩემოდანში ხურვალეთი Archived from the original on 29 October 2019 Retrieved 30 October 2019 ევროპა ჩემოდანში მცხეთა Archived from the original on 29 October 2019 Retrieved 30 October 2019 ევროპა ჩამოდანში მარნეული Archived from the original on 29 October 2019 Retrieved 30 October 2019 ევროპა ჩემოდანში თელავი Archived from the original on 29 October 2019 Retrieved 30 October 2019
