On 25 April 2022, Penza State University hosted the roundtable debate "Role of advocacy as one of the most important civil society institutions in protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms in the European Union and in the Russian Federation: problems and prospects". The discussion of this important aspect of ensuring human rights was organised within the Jean Monnet Module project "Protecting human rights within and across the European Union" (ProEU). The roundtable debate was moderated by the manager of the ProEU project - Doctor in Legal Sciences, Professor Gleb Sintsov and members of the ProEU project team PhD in Legal Sciences, practising lawyer Danil Feoktistov and PhD in Legal Sciences, practising lawyer Evgenii Bitiutskii.

During the roundtable debate, the students of the Institute of Law (Penza State University), together with researchers and legal professionals, examined the most relevant aspects of the development of advocacy:
- best advocacy practices in the European Union;
- problems in ensuring the right to legal aid in the Russian Federation;
- possibility of integrating best European ptactices to improve the legal profession in the Russian Federation.

The invited experts were Head of the Office of the Penza Region branch of the All-Russian public organisation "Association of Lawyers of Russia" Aleksandr Pervushkin, Head of the Judicial Department in the Penza Region Aleksei Kardakov, Head of the Penza branch of the Inter-Republican Bar Association (Moscow), Honorary Lawyer of Russia Nikolai Podmurny, Acting State Counselor of the Russian Federation of the 3rd class, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation Vladimir Fomin, Chairperson of the Council of Young Lawyers of the Penza Region branch of the All-Russian public organization "Association of Lawyers of Russia" Ekaterina Plakhova.

Within the roundtable debate, the ProEU project manager also announced arranging the professional training course “European Union practices of protecting human rights in criminal proceedings” for legal professionals, public administrators and civil society representatives and holding the forum “EU Human Rights Policy” in November 2024 and invited all participants to these project events.

Following the roundtable debate, it was decided to prepare recommendations for improving the legal profession in the Russian Federation, taking into account the best European practices and to publish them in the proceedings of the forum "EU Human Rights Policy", as well as to continue the analysis of this problem within the ProEU research team.