OPEN DAYS 2008
The Civil Society Forum “What role for civil society and participatory democracy in European cohesion policy for tomorrow?” was be held, for the third consecutive year in the context of the Open Days – European Week of Regions and Cities and it focused on the priority theme: "Looking forward - a European cohesion policy for tomorrow".
The first steps in this direction were made in the post-enlargement reforms put in place for the 2007-2013 regulations with more emphasis on common principles, strategy and partnership as well as the decentralization of programmes and decision-making. These reforms have concentrated so far on relations between the EU Institutions and the public authorities in Member States and regions.
The concept of good governance is, however, not limited to relations among administrations but concerns also relations with civil society, reaching and involving citizens. Considering that the governance within the EU regional policy has been a remarkable achievement, ECAS wanted to take this question even further and explore if the EU cohesion policy can become a model for other policies in terms of good governance and involvement of citizens.
Programme of the Civil Society Forum (download here  )
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