Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine have recently become direct neighbours of the European Union.
Both Moldova and Ukraine have also become closer partners of the European Union through
the European Neighbourhood Policy. Neighbourhood usually refers to people next-door, people
we know, or could easily get to know. It implies interest, curiosity and solidarity in the other
living close by. For the moment, the European Union’s “neighbourhood” is something of an
abstract notion, lacking in substance. In order to avoid ending up “lost in translation”, it is
necessary to question and some of the basic premises on which cultural and other forms of
European cooperation are posited.
In an effort to create constructive dialogue with this little known neighbourhood, the European
Cultural Foundation (ECF) and the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) are
currently preparing a three-year partnership to support cultural agents of change in Belarus,
Moldova and Ukraine. In the broad sense, this programme is to work with, and provide
assistance to, initiatives and institutions that employ creative, artistic and cultural means to
contribute to the process of constructive change in each of the three countries.
ECF and GMF have begun a process of reflection in order to understand the extent to which the
culture sphere in each of the three countries under consideration can support change, defined
here as processes and dynamics contributing to democratisation, Europeanization and
modernisation in the three countries concerned. This reflection process attempts to assess needs
and will use reported realities as the basis for discussing and developing proper cultural action
and eventually new cultural instruments. Several principles guide this process of reflection.