EDF works closely with our members and associate members in the Central and Eastern European region. 

For a full list please consult the members page 

EDF works with the following EU member state countries in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.  

North Macedonia (2005), Montenegro (2010), Serbia (2012), Albania (2014), Moldova (2022), Ukraine (2022), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2022) have all been recognised as EU accession candidate countries and as such also fall under the CEE portfolio in the International Cooperation team. EDF also works with Kosovo (whose independence is not recognised by five EU member states) and Georgia which have submitted potential candidature applications in 2022. 

EDF works closely with members and partners in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region on a number of projects, as well in supporting emerging areas and opportunities for advocacy. We work with countries that are member states of the EU and with those in the EU accession process.  

In 2023, EDF CEE Coordination is scaling up to ensure that internally at EDF we are working in harmony, and in a consistent and coordinated manner within the region. Our overall goal in the region is to build the movement in Central and Eastern Europe, to showcase the best practices in the region, as well as ensure learning within Central and Eastern Europe and across EU regions. 

In member states we assist with technical expertise, networks and linkages, trainings and collaborating on various projects. EDF also supports countries in the European External Action Service Human Rights Dialogues and on shadow reports to various relevant monitoring entities but specifically on the CRPD.

• Ensuring Accessibility and Disability Inclusion at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome (March 2025)
• Remembering Anna Drabarz, Polish disability champion (March 2025)
• The war in Ukraine: impact on persons with disabilities (February 2025)
• EU must urgently fund disability organisations affected by US aid cuts (February 2025)
• Stories without boundaries from Slovenia (December 2024)
• European Court of Human Rights: Hungary responsible for fatal neglect of people in institutions (October 2024)
• Disability issues in the Hungarian Presidency of the Council (July 2024)
• The Warsaw declaration: disability-inclusive recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine (May 2024)
• EDF’s inputs for the EU- Human Rights Dialogue on Ukraine (2023)
• Nagorno-Karabakh: Protection and safety of persons with disabilities (October 2023)
• EDF’s Statement on the Institutionalisation of Persons with Disabilities in Armenia (October 2023)
• Joint statement on the forcible transfer, deportation, and adoption of children from Ukraine by Russia (March 2023)
• Briefing on discrimination and social exclusion of Roma with disabilities (December 2022)
• EDF’s Statement on the Situation of Persons with Disabilities in Armenia (October 2022)
• Position Paper: Recommendations on migrants at EU’s external borders – emergency measures for Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (February 2022)
• Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction: Moving forward in DiDRR across Europe and Central Asia (Policy Brief) (December 2021)

EDF is increasing our policy and advocacy work around leveraging the European Union accession process to improve disability rights in candidate states. This work is integrated across several projects but most significantly under the CBM Ukraine and Moldova response.