Announcement: Second meeting of the Transatlantic Task Force on Elections and Civil Society in Ukraine

On Friday, November 30th, 16:00-17:30 p.m. Kyiv time at Ukraine Crisis Media Center (2 Khreschatyk St.) join us for the second meeting of the Transatlantic Task Force on Elections and Civil Society in Ukraine focused on the upcoming Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections as well as Kyiv’s ongoing reform efforts, including efforts to combat corruption and support for civil society. The meeting will be dedicated to the serious challenge of cyber security, which has become crucial to Ukraine’s democracy and the integrity of the upcoming Ukrainian elections.

Other venues (in a video conference mode):

Washington, DC: 9:00-10:30 a.m., The German Marshall Fund of the United States, 1744 R Street NW;

Brussels: 15:00-16:30 p.m., The German Marshall Fund of the United States, Rue de la Loi 155 Wetstraat;

The speakers will focus on issues of cyber security pertinent to Ukraine’s upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. Leading Ukrainian experts will share their assessments on how vulnerable Ukraine’s election system is in the face of potential cyber threats, notably from Russia; what steps need to be taken by the Ukrainian government, including the Central Election Commission (CEC), Cyber Police and other state agencies to counter them; and what can civil society and international partners do to support these efforts. The Roadmap of the CEC Reform, including cyber security recommendation, developed by RPR experts and presented at the meeting with the new CEC leadership in September is available here.

Speakers (Kyiv based):

Tetiana Slipachuk, Chair of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine;

Thomas Chanussot, Global Technology and Cybersecurity Adviser, International Foundation for Electoral Systems;

Olga Aivazovska, Board Chair of OPORA Civil Network, Board Chair of International Renaissance Foundation in Ukraine.

Moderators:

Jonathan Katz, Senior Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States (Washington, DC);

Olena Prokopenko, Head of International Relations, Reanimation Package of Reforms (Kyiv).

If you are interested to participate in any of the three venues, please register in the following form or, in case of technical restrictions, RSVP to this email directly.

The event will be held in a video conference format between the three venues and will be live streamed at the following link.

The Transatlantic Task Force on Elections and Civil Society in Ukraine was established by the Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN) Democracy and Civil Society Task Force and Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR) to provide a platform for stronger U.S.–EU–Ukrainian engagement and information sharing prior to the upcoming Ukrainian presidential election in March 2019 and parliamentary election in October 2019.

Civil society organizations that have joined the task force include Transparency International Ukraine, Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law, Centre for Policy and Legal Reform, OPORA Civil Network, Democratic Initiatives Foundation, DEJURE Foundation, EIDOS Center, Centre for Economic Strategy, Anti-Corruption Action Centre, and Centre UA. The initiative has also been joined by the Brussels office of the Ukrainian World Congress and the German Marshall Fund in Washington, DC and Brussels.

The video of the first Task Force meeting is available here.