Conference on EU budget review

Over 90 participants, mostly NGO representatives, attended the EU Civil Society Contact Group conference "Building a value based EU budget for the future - What role for NGOs?" on Thursday 24 of January in Brussels. The aim of the conference was to bring together representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs) around Europe and enable them to get involved into the review of the EU budget launched by the European Commission (deadline April 15, 2008).

The conference was divided into two parts. The morning session was devoted to a smaller group of representatives and enabled them to get to know better the experience of CSOs lobbying of national budgets around the world (presented by Warren Krafchik, Director of the International Budget Project) and the state of affairs concerning the EU budget, especially after the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon (presented by Jan Seifert, assistant to Helga Trüpel, Green MEP and member of the budget committee).

The afternoon session presented two panels on priorities and contribution of CSOs to the EU budget review debate. The two sessions featured representatives of EU CSO platforms from different sectors, think-thanks and the EU institutions. They all agreed that CSOs can potentially have a considerable impact on the future shape of the EU budget in terms of priorities and values it reflects. The EU Civil Society Contact Group is expected to launch further activities to support CSOs in contributing to the consultation and following the EU budget review.

For more details about the conference and the conference report (including the presentations), please visit the website of the EU Civil Society Contact Group at: http://www.act4europe.org/code/en/actions.asp?id_events=125

Information provided by Tanja Hafner Ademi; Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, coordinator - Balkan Civil Society Development Network