The European Commission’s DG Enlargement held a conference on 17th and 18th April on civil society development in southeastern Europe.
The conference attracted almost 500 participants from the region, who were invited to use the opportunity to network, exchange best practices and build partnerships. High profile speakers such as George Soros and enlargement Commission Olli Rehn started proceedings, giving way to panel discussions and workshops on particular themes, as well as a full programme of side events and stands.
Another of the conference’s main purposes was also to disseminate information about a new facility under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) for civil society development.
The facility will cover three areas:
- Support for local civil society initiatives, capacity building and reinforcing the role of civil society in the candidate and potential candidate countries
- So-called people-to-people activities: programmes that familiarise journalists, young politicians, trade union leaders and teachers for example with EU policies and institutions
- Support for developing partnerships and networks between civil society organisations in the EU and enlargement countries to promote knowledge and experience transfer.
Participants were provided with a cultural programme in the evenings, with a concert by the Sarajevo-based Youth Symphony Orchestra of Southeast Europe and the “Balkan Film Days” showing the best recent films from the region.
Those who attended the conference were generally positive about the opportunities it had provided to network and find out more about EU policies, including the IPA. Common criticisms of the conference were that it had been a too big event and that some of the panel discussions had been ill-prepared and badly chaired.
Find documents relating to the conference at: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/civil-society-development/conf_17_18_docs_en.htm
Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG
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