Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2016/05 directly channeled into political dialogues within the framework of the ENP. ENI funding is mainly used for bilateral cooperation, in the form of ENP Action Plans which provide the political framework setting the priorities for cooperation, an agenda of political and economic reforms with short and mediumterm objectives. 74 For instance, bilateral relations with Lebanon are based on the EU-Lebanon Association Agreement signed in 2002 establishing a framework for political dialogue with a view of enhancing cooperation in economic and social fields. Under the ENP, the EU/Lebanon Action Plan lays out that "the implementation of the Action Plan will significantly advance the approximation of Lebanon’s legislation, norms and standards to those of the European Union”. It reflects on human rights issues by defining the aim of promoting gender equality in various fields “including review of legislation […] on nationality” which directly collides with the subsequent point of "the lifting of reservations to the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) to which Lebanon is a party”. 75 Therefore, the Action Plan as a tool of the European Neighbourhood Policy allows the EU to support the Government of Lebanon in its efforts to further the national reform agenda, as well as to address statelessness. As a combination of the aforementioned policy tools, the European Commission has recently announced the new results-oriented partnership framework with third countries under the European Agenda on Migration 76 in the form of migration compacts which are tailored to the circumstances of each partnership with key third countries of origin and transit, mobilizing all EU policies and intruments to deliver concrete results77. The objective of such tailor-made compacts is to tackle the causes and drivers of migration. Taking account of the realization that statelessness may itself give rise to displacement, this policy framework should also address statelessness as a root cause of migration in the implementation of the compacts. In this context it remains equally important to exclude any conditionality based on migration control indicators in the allocation of development aid to third countriesin line with the Humanitarian Principles. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights 78 was established under the aegis of EuropeAid, the European Commission’s Directorate-General (DG) for International Cooperation and Development. It may also have the potential to to support the case of statelessness through the EU’s external human rights action applying a bottom-up approach helping civil society of countries of concern to induce political reform and respect of human rights 79 However, the strength of this instrument is also its weakness; it does not involve the host government which is in charge of (nationality) legislation. Nevertheless, the role of non-state actors in driving change in sensitive political issues requiring the involvement of the state (government) remains of paramount significance, especially in terms of human rights. In addition, it may also provide grants to finance projects submitted by civil society and/or international/intergovernmental organizations, including UNHCR which has a global mandate to protect stateless persons. 3.4. How to promote equal nationality rights in the MENAT region at the multilateral level? In its efforts to export its commitment to prevent, reduce and eradicate statelessness, the EU may assume its advocacy role both in the multilateral and bilateral fora. At the multilateral level, there have been collaboration efforts on statelessness between the EU, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, as well as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. To pursue international engagements, the Lisbon Treaty was a major milestone giving the EU legal personality allowing to sign international agreements, as well as to accede to international conventions and international 74 See more: http://www.enpi-info.eu/main.php?id=344&id_type=2. See: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/HU/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52006PC0365. 76 Communication of the European Commission on the European Agenda on Migration, COM(2015) 240 final, 13 May 2015. 77 Communication of the European Commission on establishing a new Partnership Framework with third countries under the European Agenda on Migration, COM(2016) 385 final, Strasbourg, 6 June 2016. 78 See: http://www.eidhr.eu. 79 Addressing the human rights policy impact of statelessness in the EU’s external action, DG External Policies, 2014, p 31. 75 10