Objective

The project is a pilot initiative creating a platform for political skills development, a V4 Academy for Political Leadership. It’s aim is to provide a sustainable response to the politically unstable climate in Ukraine, by supporting a fast improvement in the state-citizenry trust, by helping to establish an efficient representation of the needs and interests of Ukrainian citizens, and by providing support for the decrease of politics’ ethnicization and divisions based on ethnic grounds. The V4 Academy for Political Leadership will contribute to the political democratic transformation and EU integration of the non-EU neighboring countries by sharing the V4 experiences of successful transitions. Current policymakers (former CSO leaders) and academics will advise the participants, who will learn how to become effective political leaders. The aim is to use the V4 group’s experience as C-E European front-runner in political and economic development to help establish a new political culture and elite in the region through regional cooperation with the help of the V4 countries.

Background

The situation in Ukraine is a combination of different issues, such as deep rooted division within the society, lack of sovereignty on the whole territory, tense neighboring relations with Russia, downfall of the economy, and all these on the backdrop of decades of weak governance, a lopsided economy dominated by oligarchs, heavy reliance on Russia (especially energy reliance), and sharp differences between Ukraine’s linguistically, religiously, and ethnically distinct eastern and western halves. Ukraine is currently trying to resolve its internal divisions and to build strong political institutions, but the ongoing issues are hampering its ability to implement economic reforms, to regain its full territorial sovereignty, to overcome corruption, and lessen the sway of powerful oligarchs.

Nevertheless, Ukraine still has a key role in the EU’s Eastern Partnership, reason for which a declining Ukraine may cast a long shadow over the Eastern Partnership and undermine its value for the entire region. For this reason, we chose Ukraine as host country for the V4 Academy for Political Leadership, because we believe that if it pursues its democratic transition process, it may constitute a driving force for the neighbouring countries to act accordingly, bringing benefit to the region as a whole. The Academy will provide a strong support for ensuring an ongoing successful democracy path in Ukraine by building a new political culture and elite among the political leaders of future generations. As such, the Academy will have the capacity to bring about a more effective civil engagement, by shaping the political leaders of the future.

Project Description

This project is envisioned as a trial training, preparing the establishment of the V4 Academy for Political Leadership, which was conceived based on the V4 states’ regional cooperation to contribute to the democratic transformation of the non-EU neighboring countries. The V4 expertise will be shared with young Ukrainian political leaders during a workshop in Kiev elaborating needs assessment, and tailored study tours in Hungary and Poland. It will commence with the selection of the participants among CSO leaders and activists with relevant academic background and will be followed by training activities, such as leadership skills development, taking place in Ukraine. Every training day consists of both lectures and training activities, combining thus theoretical and practical activities. The workshop will be followed by the two study tours: one to Hungary (sharing experiences of CSO leaders who became successful politicians) and one to Poland (teaching participants political message elaboration and, advocacy techniques, how to get political and citizenry support and to combat corruption) designed in a tailormade way. The aim is to use the V4 group’s experience as C-E European front-runner in political and economic development to help establish a new political culture and elite in the region through regional cooperation with the help of the V4 countries.

The International Centre for Democratic Transition has the honour to cooperate with the following partner organizations in this project:

International Centre for Policy Studies (Kyiv) 

The Partners for Democratic Change (Bratislava) 

Diplomatic Academy Prague (Prague)

European Academy of Diplomacy (Warsaw) 

The project is supported by the International Visegrad Fund.