The participation of the civil society has always been signified during the cooperation programs and projects of Armenia with various international organizations. But as a rule this basically has a declarative character and in practice the civil society didn’t have a crucial role in this process. The Eastern Partnership Program of the EU is also unique in this regard. In this aspect this program is singular because the participation of the civil society is not only recommended but also mandatory. One of the main components of the program is the provision of the active participation of the civil society organizations. “The European Neighborhood Policy defines that the societies of the eastern partner states and the reforms proceeding there become more inclusive for the civil society in order to conduce to the control of the public services and to restore the trust of the society to the government. That is the reason why a lot of attention should be drawn to the involvement of the civil society in the Eastern Partnership Program,” reads the message of the European Commission regarding the Eastern Partnership Program. The first practical step taken in this direction of the launch of the Civil Society Conference in the framework of the Eastern Partnership Program was held last year and was aimed at activating the dialog between the civil society and the government. The members of the Civil Society Conference are the NGOs of the 6 states that are members of the Eastern Partnership Program, which via networking on one hand conduce to the integration and on the other hand periodically submit recommendations aimed at raising the efficiency of the program. In the framework of this format unions of civil society organizations or in other words national platforms were formed in the member states of the Eastern Partnership Program. These are platforms that can enable the NGOs, mass media to more actively get engaged in the fulfillment of goals of the Eastern Partnership Program.
