REGIONAL ACTORS AS V ECTORS OF PEACE WHAT ROLE FOR THE EU ? 25 April 2012 - European Parliament, Brussels (Hemicycle)

8:15 – 9:00 Arrival & Registration

Registration will be at the Place du Luxembourg entrance of the Altiero Spinelli building (ASP)

9:00 – 9:30 Welcoming Remarks

• Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament • Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and European Affairs, Kingdom of Belgium • , former President of Finland, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate • Pierre Vimont, Executive Secretary-General of the European External Action Service Conference moderated by Petri Sarvamaa, Member of the European Parliament

9:30 – 11:00 Keynote Panel: Regional Approaches in International Peace Mediation

Panel led by Tuija Talvitie, Executive Director, Crisis Management Initiative • Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate • Lakhdar Brahimi, founding member of The Elders, former UN Under-Secretary-General for

• James Victor Gbeho, former President of the ECOWAS Commission and Minister of Foreign Special Assignments, Algerian freedom fighter and Foreign Minister Affairs of Ghana • Margaret Vogt, in the Central African Republic (BINUCA) Special Representative and Head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office Question to be addressed: What is the added value of regional actors engaging actively in peacemaking?

With the support of: REGIONAL ACTORS AS V ECTORS OF PEACE WHAT ROLE FOR THE EU ? 25 April 2012 - European Parliament, Brussels (Hemicycle)

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break

11:30 – 12:15 Regional Actors Seen from the Ground: Views from Negotiators

Panel led by Joelle Jenny, EEAS. Head of Division - Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Mediation, • Betty Bigombe, Ugandan State Minister for Water Resources and former Chief Mediator of Uganda for the Lord’s Resistance Army • Sharif Harir, Social Anthropologist, former Chief Negotiator for the Liberation Army/Movement and Secretary for External Relations and Negotiations for the SLA • Shadia Marhaban, former GAM negotiator, Aceh, • Nabil Shaath, Palestinian Middle-East Peace process negotiator, member of the Fatah Central Committee and Chairman of the Fatah Foreign Relations Committee

Questions to be addressed: What support is needed from the international community in order to conduct sustainable peace processes? Sharing experiences in negotiation processes

situations, with examples of best practices and common pitfalls. and offering insights on how the EU could ensure an effective support and mediation in conflict

12:15 – 13:45 Lunch Break

Refreshments are provided in the Yehudi Menuhin Space of the EU Parliament

With the support of: REGIONAL ACTORS AS V ECTORS OF PEACE WHAT ROLE FOR THE EU ? 25 April 2012 - European Parliament, Brussels (Hemicycle)

13:45 – 14:45 Thinking “Out of the State”: The Role of Insider Mediators in Regional Peacemaking

Panel led by Jonathan Powell, Executive Director of Inter Mediate, former Chief of Staff to Tony Blair. • Kamarulzaman Askandar, Network, Malaysia Regional Coordinator of the Southeast Asia Conflict Studies • Emmanuel Bombande, Director of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) • Kumudini Therese Samuel, former member of the National Advisory Council on Peace and Reconciliation, Sri Lanka

Questions to be addressed: What is the role of insider mediators in regional peacekeeping? Why grassroots participation is necessary for regional peace initiatives to produce sustainable peace agreements? How to build peace below the state level?

14:45 – 15:15 Break

15:15 – 16:45 Regional Peacemaking in Practice: Challenges and Opportunities for the EU

Panel led by Franziska Brantner, Member of the European Parliament, Spokesperson for foreign affairs of the Greens/EFA group.

• Álvaro de Soto, former Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, UN Under- Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Cyprus, Mediator of the El Salvador peace process • Erwan Fouere, Transdniestrian settlement issue, former EU Special Representative for Macedonia Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the

With the support of: REGIONAL ACTORS AS V ECTORS OF PEACE WHAT ROLE FOR THE EU ? 25 April 2012 - European Parliament, Brussels (Hemicycle)

• Philippe Lefort, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia (TBC) • Rosalind Marsden, EU Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan • Marc Otte, Director of Policy Planning, Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affair, former EU Special Representative for the Middle East peace process

Questions to be addressed: What are the external and internal challenges faced by regional actors in effectively supporting peace processes. What lessons for the EU?

16:45 – 17:15 Closing Remarks

• Elmar Brok, Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee, European Parliament • Erkki Tuomioja, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland • Villy Søvndal, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark (TBC)

With the support of: