Two new interns in Brussels office

For the next few months, TRIALOG's Brussels office has two new interns; Masa Lekic from Montenegro, and Anna Marti from Spain.

Masa has been studying International Affairs at Vesalius college in Brussels for a year and a half, and is particularly interested in Montenegrin politics, with a focus on its future integration into the European Union. This is what drew her to Brussels originally, and now she is busy researching a report for TRIALOG about civil society in her home country. She is particularly interested in the extent to which civil society is informed about EU policies, what their attitudes towards membership are, and how aware they are about development issues. Her research is boosted by her past experience volunteering with a number of NGOs in Montenegro, which has given her an insight into civil society in the country, and provided her with contacts that should strengthen her report.

Anna has been working with the CONCORD Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood (EPAN) working group, which TRIALOG convenes, on a project about the EU's Neighbourhood Policy since June. The group is preparing to contribute to the mid term review of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, the funding mechanism for the neighbourhood countries, in 2009. Anna is researching the situation in Egypt and Ukraine, both neighbourhood countries but from different regions. She went on a study visit to Egypt, where she was able to interview the representatives of CSOs, and is gathering information about attitudes towards the EU policy, the extent to which it is understood and used, and impressions of the situations in each country for civil society. Once the information has been gathered, the case studies will be used in the group's lobbying work to improve policy, as well as the official mid term review of the instrument.



Information provided by Masa Lekic and Anna Marti, TRIALOG