The EBA Public Relations Committee was established in November 2005 in response to the interest of PR professionals from EBA member companies. The Committee holds its meetings on a monthly basis on the last Thursday at 17:00 at the EBA office.

The Committee quickly gained live interest from the EBA community as well as from mass media, and by now has already become a driving force for those involved into public relations to raise and discuss issues of their interest and concern.

In 2008 trategic objectives of the Committee concern several fields of public relations activities, namely:

• To introduce professional and ethical standards of public relations for all EBA member companies;
• To persuade EBA member companies to move away from the Ukrainian practice of paid public relations in favour of international public relations standards;
• To improve and enhance the professional standards of public relations practitioners working within EBA member companies through training and by example;
• To improve management understanding of the benefits and processes of public relations within EBA member companies;
• To build bridges between the competing Public Relations organizations and with the media in order to create a more businesslike, effective and profitable public relations industry in Ukraine.

According to the results of the Annual Elections for the EBA PR Committee Leadership, which were conducted at the end of 2007, Kostyantyn Gridin, CEO of CFC Consulting, was elected for the post of Committee Chair. Sergiy Ilutsa, Senior Account Manager of Whites Communication International Public Relations, became the Committee Vice Chair on Standards and Ethic.

The EBA PR Committee Coordinator is Olena Kokurina, EBA, committees@eba.com.ua.

Also the EBA Public Relations Committee holds its meeting “Meet the Press” on last Thursday of each third month, 17:00 at the EBA office.