Amb. Mark Gitenstein and Amb. Audra Plepytė | The Future of Democracy and Free Markets in Central and Eastern Europe

Co-Funded by the European Union Ambassador Mark Gitenstein US Ambassador to the European Union, 2021-2025 US Ambassador to Romania, 2009-2012 How is the EU accession process proceeding with Moldova, Ukraine and other aspiring entrants in the region? Ambassador Gitenstein will offer an assessment of the European Commission’s application of its various enforcement tools to ensure compliance by member states of their treaty obligations. He will additionally discuss the role of the United States in supporting those processes and the role played by hostile powers like Russia in undermining them. Furthermore, Ambassador Gitenstein will consider the disturbing deterioration of independent media in the region as the essential bulwark for democracy, free markets and against corruption and backsliding. Ambassador Audra Plepytė Ambassador of Lithuania to the United States and Mexico, 2021-Present Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the United Nations, 2017-2021 Ambassador Audra Plepytė was appointed as Lithuania’s Ambassador to the United States of America and to the United Mexican States in 2021. Before this she was a Lithuanian Permanent Representative to the United Nations where she facilitated several negotiations, led the Group of Friends, and was elected to executive bodies of UN instruments and institutions, including being elected as the President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2021. As a career diplomat for over 30 years, she has held numerous positions within the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dealing with bilateral and multilateral issues, heading the European Union Department (2014–2017), the Personnel Department, and International Missions and Conflict Prevention Division. She was also Lithuania’s ambassador to Spain, World Tourism Organization from 2010 till 2014. Ambassador Plepytė has BA and MA in Philosophy at Vilnius University. She also has a diploma from the Institute of International Relations at Vilnius University, as well as a certificate of Diplomatic studies at Oxford University in UK. _______________________________ Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

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