Focus Group No. 1 – DCFTA trade policy issues
In March 2019 we began what will be a series of monthly focus group meetings on key aspects of the Association Agreements and DCFTAs between the EU and Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Focus group sessions will be held in each of the three capitals with a range of stakeholders (government, business, civil society, etc.) using a standardized questionnaire. The focus groups will be organised and moderated by our partners in the three capitals: IER in Kyiv, Expert-Grup in Chisinau and Reformatics in Tbilisi.
The objective is to get fresh views on how the Association Agreements and DCFTAs are progressing in practice. This may lead to recommendations to policy makers in the three capitals and the EU institutions.
While the views of individual participants are treated as confidential, reports will be published drawing together a synthesis of the findings.
Seven focus groups are planned on main chapters of the DCFTA, to be conducted at roughly monthly intervals:
- Trade policy measures;
- Industrial product standards – technical barriers to trade (TBT);
- Sanitary and phytosanitary regulations for agri-food products (SPS);
- Customs processes;
- Financial services;
- Energy;
- Environment.
The following is the first such report.