The EU-Russia and Central Asia Follow-up Committee

Since February 2011, the EESC has been following up its relations with Russian civil society through the Russia Follow-up Committee.

Support for people-to-people contacts is one of the five guiding principles for EU-Russia relations agreed by the EU foreign ministers and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

The EU-Russia Follow-up Committee is monitoring the state of Russian civil society in times of war through its contacts with the anti-war section of Russian civil society that is present on EU territory.

This has led to fruitful exchanges of information and views on how bilateral relations should proceed after the end of the war and a return to freedom and democracy in the country.

In April 2023, the scope of action of the Follow-up Committee has been enlarged to Central Asia. The body's tasks include now monitoring the situation of civil society in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and its name has been changed accordingly, to become the EU-Russia and Central Asia Follow-up Committee.