In 1991 George Soros described an idea to promote cooperation among societies in Central and Eastern Europe.  "People should travel, meet each other, exchange opinions and experiences," he said.  "They should engage in the processes of transition.  There is so much that people from Central and Eastern Europe can offer each other, so many ways in which they can be helpful to each other.  This region should be alive."

Seventeen years ago this idea became the East East Program and supported exchanges among post-socialist societies in Europe.  Today the program is known as East East: Partnership Beyond Borders and supports exchange of information, experience, expertise and knowledge, through multi-national initiatives and networks of informed, empowered people, in the realization of practices of open society in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

East East: Partnership Beyond Borders is implemented by the foundations of the Open Society Institute (OSI) network in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Ukraine, and with partners in Slovenia, Russia, Croatia, Lithuania and Hungary.

Initiatives which receive program support are identified by the foundations and/or partners, and are evaluated by peer review by the foundations and/or partners.  The program awards financial support for expenses of international exchange, including in-country expenses of the exchange and travel to enable participation in initiatives which receive program support.

350 multi-national initiatives receive East East: Partnership Beyond Borders support annually.  Examples of initiatives supported in 2008 include,

- Barrier Free Cities: Protection of the Rights of People with Disability

- Capacity Building for Working with Socially Excluded Young People

- Citizen Engagement and Public Participation: Transparency in Decision-Making

- Friendly EU Borders: Relations with New Eastern Neighbors
- Lessons Learned: Security Sector Reform and Euro-Atlantic Integration

- Building a Common European Future for Environmental Sustainability

- Enhancing e-democracy in Mongolia: Experiences of Citizen Participation Initiatives in Estonia

- New Energy Routes in Southeast Europe and Human Rights Protection: Inter-Sectoral Dialogue

- Finding Common Ground: Lessons from the EU Accession Process

- History and Collective Memory in Southeast Europe: Dilemmas and Implications of Political Discourse

- Methodologies of Integrating Vulnerable Groups in Society: Homeless and Unemployed People

- Perspectives for Development of the State and the Civil Society in Central Asia

- Independent Election Monitoring in the post-Soviet Space: Comparative Experiences

- NGO Engagement in European Integration in Ukraine: Experiences in the Czech Republic

- Institutional Capacity for Combating Intolerance and Extremism in the Black Sea Region

- Regional Trends and Approaches to Migration and Asylum Challenges

- Inclusion and Exclusion in and on the Borders of Europe

The Subprogram for European Integration was launched in 2005 as an initiative of East East: Partnership Beyond Borders and OSI-Brussels.  The Subprogram supports exchanges among EU member countries, candidate and potential candidate countries and the EU neighborhood, addressed to accession experiences in Central Europe and opportunities and challenges of European integration.

Southeast Asia: Partnership Beyond Borders was created in 2001 and adapts the mandate of East East: Partnership Beyond Borders, to support multi-national initiatives of civil society organizations within Southeast Asia, and to engage civil society organizations in Southeast Asia in global exchanges, to share best practices and lessons learned, in the realization of practices of open society in Southeast Asia.

East East: Partnership Beyond Borders does not support world congresses and annual conferences; artistic productions; individual travel/conference participation grants, consultancies; higher education research; translation and/or publishing projects; hard science; or, business/commercial/for-profit activities.

The coordinator of the East East: Partnership Beyond Borders Program in Ukraine:

Ms. Tetyana Kukharenko,

International Renaissance Foundation (Ukraine)

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