The European Citizens’ Assembly (ECA) is the French subdivision of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (HCA), a non-commercial citizens’ movement, created in 1990 in Prague by citizen activists from Eastern and Western Europe based on the participation of individual activists from NGOs and public movements. Its main goals are the protection of democracy, human rights, peace and widening the possibilities of civil society.

Understanding to what extent the situation in Ukraine promotes disunity amongst peace activists and social movements in Europe, and particularly in France, we have dedicated part of our work to organising meetings and seminars on the situation in Ukraine itself, as well as problems regarding conflict resolution and security in a comparative perspective. After the start of the conflict in Ukraine, the ECA decided to develop its partnership with activists in the country, as well as participating in dialogues between Russian and Ukrainian representatives of civil society.