On May 6, the Council of Europe and the European Union have officially started work on a series of projects, worth €4 million over 30 months, to promote democracy, good governance and stability in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The aim of the cooperation projects, which will be run by the Council of Europe as part of the EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative, is to provide support to reform processes in the six countries involved and to help them move closer towards Council of Europe and EU standards in areas such as electoral standards and judicial reform, as well as fighting cybercrime and corruption.

The agreement will also provide a multilateral framework for addressing issues raised by the Council of Europe’s different monitoring and advisory bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights, and for enabling the participating countries to exchange information and best practices, the Council of Europe said on its official website.

The Council of Europe’s Director of Political Advice and Cooperation, Claudia Luciani, said: “This joint endeavor in key areas of our expertise is a further demonstration of the excellent cooperation between the Council of Europe and the EU in promoting common European values across the whole continent.”