The proposed topics for discussion are: • Reconceptualization of resilience: a core-periphery approach and its relevance for EU’s Eastern peripherality • EU’s geostrategic challenges in the Eastern Neighbourhood • Resilient governance for a better neighbourhood • Economic performance and functionality for boosting resilience in EaP countries • History, culture and society. EaP countries between path dependency and the Europeanisation way • A resillience model for a more differentiated Eastern Partnership: synthesis and case studies • Institutional resilience and social contract in the age of geostrategic uncertainty

Rationale The subject related to resilience involve, inter alia, the need for a radical overhaul of the neighbourhood strategy, in general, and of the Eastern Partnership, in particular, to advance the transformative processes in the EaP countries by adapting their economies and societies to European standards. In effect, the EU’s main challenge regarding its Eastern Neighbourhood is to find new approaches and action tools in the region that would be most adequate for the geopolitical context (defined by instability and multiple shocks) and for the specificities of each country (structural fragilities, economic, social and institutional risks). Nevertheless, since the values, models of governance or reforms cannot be imposed from the outside, merely searching for optimal formulas at the EU level is clearly not enough. The perspective of development in the region is directly dependent on the capacity of EaP countries to assume and implement reforms in moments of abrupt change and rupture of political and social stability. This means that it is necessary to find common solutions, outside and inside, and advance better understanding of the region as a whole, by integrating a systemic analysis of the internal and external shocks and vulnerabilities.

WORKSHOP: Building resilience in the EU’s neighbourhood countries. New approaches for a more effective Eastern Partnership