The Regional Civil Society Conference:
for Europe of the Western Balkans and Turkey

This event will bring together civil society representatives, government representatives and EU officials to examine broad trends in the reform process necessary for a participatory democracy and a sustainable civil society.

There will be three main themes for debate:

1. Benchmarking progress across the region. This will be done through progress reports from each country by exploring and comparing national reforms to create an enabling environment for civic engagement

2. Sustainability of civil society in the medium-term. Many civil society organisations face the dilemma that EU funding is the main available source so the tendency has been for foundations to withdraw from the region. Yet EU funding alone cannot sustain a civil society. What progress is there towards creating national funds with public resources or in encouraging corporate social responsibility?

3. The outlook for EU policies towards the region. The accession of Croatia ought to provide a new boost for enlargement. By September 2012 the future of the EU budget and the neighbourhood and pre-accession programmes for 2014-2020
should be much clearer.

The background to this event is the 10-point Ljubljana declaration, followed up at previous events in Zadar, the reports by the Balkans civil society development network, TACSO publications and the Commission progress reports on candidate and potential candidate countries. The Council of Europe code on good practice in civil society participation is also a reference point.

Click below for the pictures from Zadar conference:

Please find below the programme of the conference, the country reports and the concensus statement:

Programme of the Civil Society Conference: for Europe of the Western Balkans and Turkey
Report from Albania
Report from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Report from Croatia
Report from Kosovo
Report from Macedonia
Report from Montenegro
Report from Serbia
Report from Turkey
Concensus statement

To read and consult the speakers' presentations, please follow the links below:

27.09.2012	Panel: State of play of the accession process in the Western Balkans and the role of CSOs - new perspectives or old challenges?
	Panel: Benchmarking progress across the Region for an enabling framework for civic engagement Selen Lermiogly Yilmaz: Turkey Civil Society Report
	First Workshop: What information is available and how good is access to information? Mara Silina: Your rights under the Aarhus Convention Dubravka Bevandic: What information is available and how good is access to information? Sasa Segrt: Access To Information - Challenges and Opportunities
	Second Workshop: How do standards of consultation, participation and partnership compare? Nicola Bertolini: How do standards of consultation, participation and partnership compare? Tanja Hafner-Ademi: How do standards of consultation, participation and partnership compare?
	Third Workshop: What are the possibilities for citizen participation, deliberation and direct democracy in the Region? Simon Forrester: CSOs and Citizens’ Participation
28.09.2012	Panel: The future of the European budget and support for the Western Balkans and Turkey Lone Sorensen: Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020
	Panel: Partnership with national authorities on the strategies and programmes to implement EU funds Ardita Metaj-Dika: Partnership with national authorities on the strategies and programmes to implement EU funds Liga Baltina: How can participation in cross-border or other EU level programmes be improved? Andy Churchill: Partnership to implement EU funds - Experience from the UK
	Final Session

Please find in this section below, some background information and research documents:

Ljubljana Declaration
Ways and means to involve civil society in the EU Cohesion Policy 2014 2020
The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) 2014-2020

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The Regional Civil Society Conference: for Europe of the Western Balkans and Turkey

The Regional Civil Society Conference:
for Europe of the Western Balkans and Turkey