It was a first seminar focusing on an evaluation of a policy of the eastern Partnership and its future prospects. The event was organized by Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and Poland, Spanish Presidency in the EU, and Madrid think-tank FRIDE.

Theme blocks of the seminar were:

1. a role of international financial institutions in a policy of the Eastern Partnership;
2. a bilateral dimension of the Eastern Partnership;
3. a multilateral dimension including a participation of a civic society.

A project of the Eastern Partnership with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine was presented in June 2008 by Poland and Sweden. A founding summit was organized by the Czech Presidency in the EU in Prague in 2008. The Madrid seminar was attended by institutions of the EU member states, representatives of six countries participating in the Eastern Partnership, Russia, Turkey, the USA, international financial institutions and scholars. A delegation of the Czech Republic at the seminar on January 28 was led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic for European Affairs Vladimír Galuška. The delegation of the Czech Republic included Petr Kratochvíl (a director of Institute of International Relations) and Kristina Prunerová (Civil Society Forum). The first block of the seminar was moderated by Pavel Štěpánek, a Czech representative in the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.