TRIALOG Central Training 2011 on transition experience

This years' TRIALOG Central Training / Annual Exchange of New member states development NGO platforms was coordinated together with the Hungarian NGDO platform HAND and DemNet. TRIALOG wanted to create synergies with the ongoing Hungarian Presidency and a conference organised by DemNet on the transition experiences and the role of the New EU Member States (NMS) in development cooperation and focused the event around the same ideas.

At this meeting around 25 people gathered representing 8 national platforms of development NGOs from the EU-12 countries as well as two representatives from the candidate countries Croatia and Macedonia. The annual gathering provides the opportunity for the NMS development NGO platforms to get updated about the status of each other, to exchange experiences and share developments in their respective countries.

After this sharing a session on the transition experience followed. Leading question was whether transition could be a value added expertise when talking about development cooperation. Panelists were Jan Latas from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Barbara Erös, DemNet and organiser of the conference, and Gordan Bosanac from the Centre for Peace Studies, Croatia. Another session looked into ongoing Hungarian, the upcoming Polish and Cypriote EU presidencies and platform representatives reported on their presidency programme.

The full report and country presentations you find on the TRIALOG website.

Presentations of the DemNet – Conference Civil Society Development – In Trance or in Transition? Improving New Member State and Eastern Partnership Exchange for Strengthening Democratic Processes are also available online on the DemNet Website

Information provided by Ulrike Bey, TRIALOG