Friday 19 July 2013

Policy Digest: Lithuanian Presidency Priorities for Development Cooperation

From 1 July to 31 December 2013 Lithuania will hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union (presidency) for the first time. This means that Lithuanian government members and officials will chair the process of the creation of EU rules and legislation during this period. With this role Lithuania will be in the centre of EU policy-making.
The period of the presidency is important for the citizens and civil society organisations (CSOs) in the presidency country because of the opportunity to contribute to the EU discussions with national expertise and influence the decision-makers with their priorities and recommendations.

Mainstreaming the transition experience in the field of development cooperation is the national priority issue concerning development cooperation during the Lithuanian Presidency. Lithuanian Umbrella (LU) which is made up of two development CSOs – LITDEA and National Platform of Development NGOs which together unite 30 national CSOs – will coordinate and implement a presidency project during 12 months, starting in June 2013. The overall objective of the project is to empower Lithuanian NGOs to proactively contribute to national ODA policies in relation to the EU agenda during the Lithuanian Presidency.

This Policy Digest will shortly explain the role of the country when holding the presidency; look at the main priorities and high-level events concerning development cooperation during the Lithuanian Presidency; explain the actions of the Lithuanian development CSO platform Lithuanian Umbrella (LU) during the presidency; and outline possible action points for CSOs outside Lithuania to engage in the presidency processes and activities.

The policy digest was written by Igoris Kononovas (Lithuanian Umbrella), Magdalena Trojanek (Zagranica Group) and Mirjam Sutrop (TRIALOG).

Download the Policy Digest here: http://www.trialog.or.at/images/doku/lithuanian_presidency_pd_final.pdf  

Information provided by TRIALOG

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