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With a delay in the delivery of visas the Belarusian authorities tried to stop the meeting of the Steering Committee of the Civil Society Forum for Eastern Partnership that was scheduled in Minsk on the 4th and 5th of April 2011.

Unfortunately (see Statement below) the whole Steering Committee could not meet as expected, because only nine members of the committee were able to arrive in Minsk, while four members did not receive a visa and couldn’t arrive.

Despite this difficult situation, the members met to further progress on the different objectives like the activities of the Working Groups and the National Platforms. They also had the opportunity to discuss the important challenge of the future Eastern Partnerhsip Summit in Warsaw in September and also the Third Civil Society Forum in Poznan in November.

The group of participants had the opportunity to meet the National Platform and discuss the possible means of support to Civil Society representatives in Belarus.
Mrs. Antonella Valmorbida, ALDA’s Director, elected co-chair of the Steering Committee together with M. UladVialicka, chairman of EuroBelarus, lead part of the debates.
The next meeting of the Steering Committee will take place on the 3rd and 4th of May in Brussels.

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The director of ALDA, Mrs. Antonella Valmorbida, presented the Code of Good Practices for Civil Participation, promoted by the Conference of the INGOs of the Council of Europe, at the Association of Municipalities of Sweden (SALAR) on the 31st of May.
The event was organised among the activities to promote citizens’ participation already taking place in Sweden.

Indeed, a framework agreement between the authorities and representatives of civil society working on social matters has been recently agreed and based on the Code of Good Practices. At the meeting, took part about 20 municipalities from Sweden interested to know concrete proposal about how to improve the participation of citizens in the decision making process at the local level.

The Code was also presented by one of its author, Mrs. Ariane Rodert, representative of the Social Forum Sweden and member of the European and Economic Social Committee.

For further information please visit:
http://www.coe.int/T/NGO/code_good_prac_en.asp
http://english.skl.se/activities

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In cooperation with the French Cultural Center Nis and the Office for European Affairs of the City of Nis, with the support from the French Embassy in Belgrade, LDA CSS realised a series of screenings of films and debates on globalisation. The program aimed to introduce citizens of Nis with the phenomenon of globalisation in the areas of life most affected by it.

Debates and speakers, professors from the University of Nis, enabled the public to reflect on all the basic forms of globalisation – economic, political and cultural and their effect on their personal life and local communities where they live.

This programme has been organised by Camille DURAND currently studying as a Fifth Year Student at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in LILLE (France), as a part of her three-month internship in LDA.

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In the frame of the Decentralised cooperation programme between the Region Lower Normandy and Macedonia,in the Component 6 “Agriculture development”, FFRM(Federation of Farmers from Republic of North Macedonia) and AFDI (French Farmers and International Development) are organising a study visit in France in the period of 03 -13 April.
The FFRM representatives, among who are the two dairy producers and a producer of apples, will spend 10 days in France to visit several farms.

The purpose of this visit is to know the capacity of milk production as well as the production, storage and apple processing. During these 10 days, Macedonian team will visit farm cooperatives and find out more about the functioning of the bank “Crédit Agricole”, and relations with local communities.
While in France, Macedonian delegation will speak at the AFDI General Assembly, focusing on the cooperation between AFDI and FFRM in the Decentralised cooperation programme between the Region Lower Normandy and Macedonia.

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The Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture Lokomotiva and The Regional Centre for Ethnology Culture and Techniques from Lower Normandy – CRCET are organising an Analysis and Strategic planning workshop for cultural development in the Pelagonija region, in Bitola, from 04 until 07 April.
The participants will analyse the needs, weaknesses and potential in the cultural field in the municipalities of the Pelagonija region; together with the creation of regional vision and mission for cultural development as well as the creation of a methodology for strategic cultural development in the region.

Around thirty participants will be present at this workshops, together with the representatives of cultural sector of all nine municipalities from Pelagonija who are directly involved in the regional culture.
The programme of this workshop will be moderated by Biljana Tanurovska Kjulavkovski and Violeta Kakacova (Lokomotiva, Skopje) and Kristina Kujundzic (cultural expert from Serbia). The other participants and experts that will participate in Bitola are Mirjana Cvetkovic (Serbia), Pierre Schmit, Audrey Pulmier and Rimy Privat (France), Biljana Prentoska and Dragana Kjurcoska (The Ministry of Culture of Republic of Macedonia).

This workshop will be implemented in the Copmponent 4 of the Decentralised cooperation programme between the Region Lower Normandy and Macedonia.For further information please consult the webpage of the Cooperation http://crbn-mk.courriers.info/

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As part of the Component 2 “Youth, education, local and European citizenship”, part of the Decentralised cooperation programme between the Region Lower Normandy and North Macedonia, the House of Europe in Caen and the Coalition of youth organisations – SEGA from Macedonia, are organising a 3 day study visit in Lower Normandy.
The Macedonian delegation will be hosted from 4 to 6 April 2011 as a team of the Centre for Information and advice for the youth of Prilep, together with city representatives from Stip and Strumica interested in activities in this field.

The visit will be focused on creating the conditions in North Macedonia as in Normandy, so that all students can discover the set of opportunities for education and training as well as the potential for engagement. Restitution roundtable will be held on April 6 in Lower Normandy.

For further information please consult the webpage of the Cooperation http://crbn-mk.courriers.info/

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In March 2011, LDACSS started to implement the project “Youth Cultural Club”, supported at the public tender of the city of Nis Council for Cultural Creativity in 2010.

This club is designed as a cultural program with the aim to satisfy the cultural needs of young people in Nis and to motivate and encourage them to use their creative capacities.

Till now we organised competition for young writers up to the age of 35 who haven’t published their works yet.
By the end of June, papers will be published in printed and online publication. Promotion of publication and literary evenings will be organised till the end of July.

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The second edition of the European Assises of decentralised cooperation for development was held in Brussels on March 29-30. Representatives of local and regional authorities from EU and developing countries participated in the event and exchanged views with each other and representatives of European institutions on development cooperation.
The President of the Committee of the Regions Mercedes Bresso, the European Commissioner for development Andris Pielbags and the Vice-president of the European Parliament Isabelle Durant participated in the Assises.

The aim of the Assises was to strengthen the effectiveness of development aid and the participation of local and regional authorities in the development cooperation policies and to build a genuine EU partnership between the different actors active in the field of development.
During the Assises, ALDA representatives participated in the panel during the workshop organised by TER-RES (Territoires Responsables). Mr. Dobrica Milovanovic, First Vice President of ALDA and Vice Mayor of the City of Kragujevac, Serbia; Mrs. Sabrina Rosati from Reggio nel Mondo, Italy and ALDA Director, Mrs. Antonella Valmorbida spoke in the panel and presented the Local Democracy Agency approach and experience as a tool for successful multilateral decentralised cooperation and partnership building in development work.

ALDA had a stand during the Assises and presented participants with more details about the work of the Local Democracy Agencies and the role of ALDA as an actor for development. A special emphasis was put on ALDA’s upcoming Working Together for Development project which is expected to start in early 2011. This multi-annual development project with 21 international partners and associates coming from 16 different countries aims at improving the capacities of local authorities and non state actors to act as efficient development agents.

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The final conference of the Cards’ project, “Regional partnerships for intercultural exchange“ will be held in Mostar (Hotel Ero) from 30th of March to 2nd of April.
It is a two-year regional project co-financed by the European Commission which consist of a set of events involving local authorities, civil society organisation and citizens which aims at enhancing networking and best practices among some South Eastern European municipalities.
The main aim of the project is to support diversity management in multiethnic communities such as Mostar, Osijek and Subotica, to improve the participation and inclusion of ethnic minorities as well as to highlight the richness of the several regional cultural traditions.

The leading applicant of the project is the city administration of Subotica; ALDA, the LDAs of Subotica, Mostar and Osijek and the Lighthouse Media centre of Wolverhampton (UK) are the partners of the project, equally involved.
The final conference will give an overview of the activities implemented over the past two years and provide space for interaction and debate of representatives of CSOs and local self-governments from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and with their counterparts in EU on some key concepts and practices related with democratic participation and good local governance. In the opening session the key-note speakers are Mr. Ljubo Beslic, Mayor of Mostar, Mr. Slavko Parac, President of City Assembly Subotica, Mr. Jovan Jelic, Deputy Prefect of Osijek Baranja County, Ms. Natalia Dianiskova, Head of Operations Section, Social Development, Civil Society and CBC, EU Delegation to BiH and Ms. Suzan Arslan, DG Enlargement Regional Programmes, CSF Project manager.

During the introductory session, Project team members will give an overview of project activities and some of its main achievements, while during the two days’ programme five thematic panels will be organised with the participation of panelists coming from the three countries included in the project, but also from municipalities from Italy, UK, Norway, Hungary and Moldova.
The collection of written contributions will be presented during the conference, while the thematic panels are designed as the presentation of diverse local practices and the debate on the following issues:

  • Minorities and participation at local level (facilitated by Mr. Owen Masters, CoE Confidence building measures programme expert)
  • From multicultural coexistence to intercultural governance (facilitated by Mr. Gunnar Mandt, European Wergeland Centre, Oslo)
  • BE-ME perspective film documentaries (facilitated by Mr. Frank Challenger, Light House media centre, Wolverhampton)
  • Municipal service provision in culturally diverse communities (facilitated by Ms. Jlenia Destito, Ipres Centre, region Puglia)
  • Civil society as an actor of a new dialogue and reconciliation in the region (facilitated by Mr. Vehid Sehic, Citizens Forum Tuzla)
  • Opportunities for Civil society and local self-governments in cross-border /regional co-operation programmes (facilitated by Ms. Stanka Parac Damjanovic, ALDA)

Around seventy participants are expected in Mostar conference, while the hosts, Local Democracy Agency Mostar and the city administration Mostar will organise a study visit and the sightseeing tour on Saturday 2nd April. In addition a joint cultural programme linking the young performers from three cities included in the project, Mostar, Osijek and Subotica, will be organised in Mostar Youth Theatre.

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The role of Local Democracy Agencies in the process of democratization in the Balkans and in the South Caucasus was underlined by the French Minister for Local Authorities and President of the Alsace Region, Philippe Richert, in his allocution to the 20th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
The 20th session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe was held in Strasbourg in the last February.

At the top of the agenda there was debates on human rights issues at local level, in particular the situation of Roma in Europe. An urgent debate was dedicated to the role of the Congress in the context of the current reform process of the Council of Europe.

Congress members also examined several reports on territorial democracy in Turkey, Romania, Austria and Malta as well as the report on the observation of local elections in Ukraine, held in October 2010.
Among the other guest speakers, there were EU Commissioner responsible for Regional Policy, Johannes Hahn, Council of Europe Secretary General, Thorbjorn Jagland, and Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg.

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ALDA will participate to the second Assises of Decentralised Cooperation for development that will take place in Brussels on 29th and 30th of March, promoted by the Committee of the Region.

The Assise represents a unique opportunity to bring together local and regional authorities’ representatives from the EU and developing countries to exchange their views and hold a political dialogue with the European institutions on development cooperation. The ultimate aim is to contribute to reinforce development aid effectiveness towards the full integration of local and regional authorities into the development cooperation policies and to build a genuine EU partnership between the different actors active in the field of development.
The second edition of the Assises includes an opening session and five parallel thematic roundtables, on March 29, 2011 in the afternoon. The plenary session, will take place on March 30, 2011, in the morning and will bring together the “rapporteurs” of each roundtable to present the main conclusions of the discussions. This will be followed by an exchange of questions and answers session between the participants and high representatives of the EU institutions.
On the occasion of the Assises, three additional events will be held at the Committee of the Region in the framework of the activities of TER-RES (Territoires Responsables), Platforma and the Joint EU-Africa Strategy.

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Strengthening and enlarging the network of Local Democracy Agencies in Europe is the first objective of ALDA, the Association of Local Democracy Agencies.
To this end, two important meetings will be held in Strasbourg during and following shortly the 20th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

The first one held on 24 March at the Council of Europe main building, will gather twenty participants representing ten potential partners from France, Italy, Estonia, Greece as well as Armenia for an LDA in Armenia. Held under the auspices of the Congress, this meeting will decide on a concrete strategy for the establishment of the Agency.
The second is the LDA Georgia partners’ meeting organised by the Municipality of Strasbourg, the new lead partner of the Kutaisi based Agency. The main aims of this event is to update LDA Georgia statute, to reflect upon ways to enlarge LDA partners’ network, as well as to agree on an Action plan for 2011-2012.
This meeting will be held on 25 March at the Hotel de Ville premises.
ALDA will hold a stand during the whole session of the Congress.

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The National Platform of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership (CSF EaP) has been denied a place to hold its Conference Civil Society Role & Place in the Future Strategy. The Conference was to be held on March 19-20 at the Minsk International Educational Centre (IBB).
The IBB was unable of getting an approval for providing premises to hold the event due to a decision made by one of its founders, the Minsk City Executive Committee. For formal reasons, the Crown Plaza hotel administration has also all of a sudden rejected the idea of becoming a possible Conference venue.

The Conference Organising Committee regards these decisions as single-minded actions taken by the Belarusian authorities conductive to putting obstacles in the way of the activities carried out by the National Platform of CSF EaP. The topic and the expected event membership could provide a reason for any such obvious countering actions. The National Platform of CSF EaP has been promoting the idea of the civil society and democratic opposition consolidation and putting under discussion a possible integrated strategy of the united forces. Representatives of a number of political forces, as well as civil society activists and experts have been invited to participate in the Conference. A de facto ban imposed on the Conference seems a particularly non-constructive step against the background of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s public declarations as to the importance of the Eastern Partnership initiative for Belarus. By ignoring a major component of this European Union’s initiative, the Civil Society Forum, the Belarusian authorities are actually violating their commitments assumed within the Eastern Partnership framework.

Co-Chairperson of the Eastern Partnership’s Civil Society Forum and its national coordinator in Belarus Ulad Vialichka offers his comment on the situation as follows: It is an absurd and incomprehensible step taken by the Minsk City Executive Committee. The National Platform of Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership has always been and remains an open site for discussing the momentous issues in the country’s development and civil society. While adhering to the idea of a high value represented by the mutual dialogue, we have never opposed any public organisations and initiatives, including also evidently pro-government associations, participating in our events. I am convinced that these actions taken by the Belarusian authorities will not remain unheeded by the Civil Society Forum Steering Committee, national platforms of the Eastern Partnership member countries and the European Commission.

Under the present circumstances, the Organising Committee of the conference has been forced to take a decision on postponing the Conference for a later period. Nonetheless, no obstacles must stop the process of putting under discussion an integrated strategy for all the democratically oriented forces of this country.

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ALDA is preparing an Evaluation Report on Active Citizenship. This report will include a detailed description of ALDA’s concept, methodology and activities concerning Active Citizenship. A full evaluation of the projects implemented in this field will be given.

ALDA wishes to include its members and partners best practices in active citizenship and will provide several pages in this report for their experiences and projects. The report will be disseminated through ALDA’s network and provide visibility to the ideas, projects and activities described in it.
To have their experience included in the report, members and partners have to send to ALDA, before 30th March 2011, a paper describing the activity

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The Department of International Cooperation of Brindisi Municipality, in collaboration with the local office of ALDA, has launched a communication campaign on active citizenship and international cooperation.
It was produced a spot that promotes values and actions in these areas.

Watch the spot here

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ALDA General Assembly 2011 will take place on 8th and 9th of July in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
In forecasting of Poland’s upcoming EU presidency activities, an International Conference on “Local governance, volunteering and civic participation: a challenge for local authorities and civil society “ will be held in the framework of the Assembly.
All the necessary documentation will be send soon to ALDA members and publish in this website.

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Support and solidarity with citizens of southern Mediterranean Countries is proclaimed unanimously by the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership in a letter to the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, Baroness Catherine Margaret Ashton.
On behalf of the CSF, the co-chair of the Steering Committee, Ulad Vialichka and Antonella Valmorbida, proclaimed support and solidarity with civil societies of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other countries of the Southern Neighborhood, which are striving for democracy and better life.
The statement is the expression of the deep grieve about all victims of the violent confrontation with the forces opposing the democratic changes, and the particular concern about the people in disgrace and immigrants in great need.

The Civil Society Forum calls the EU to provide them with necessary support in order to confirm the real values of solidarity on which the EU is funded.
The respect for the fundamental human rights and democracy are considered by the CSV among the fundamental basis for prosperity and welfare of all countries all over the world.

Ulad Vialichka and Antonella Valmorbida welcomed the changes in the North Africa region with a hope for a better future for this region.
“Therefore – says the statement – it is so important for the EU to find a proper balance between its engagement in the East and in the South. Both directions are equally important for the future security of the EU borders and Europe as a continent even though they are facing different challenges and problems. However, we would like to strongly recommend having a look at the two great political dimensions of the European neighborhood policy – the East and the South – as a two sides of the same coin, that need to be treated equally in terms of political and financial attention. All actions undertaken by the European Union in regard to the Mediterranean Region should not be made on the account of the Eastern Partnership. This would be in contradiction with the goals of the European neighborhood policy”.
The reference is to the letter by the Foreign Ministers of France, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Slovenia that suggests shifting funds from the East to the South.

“We understand – the statement says – that the dynamics and scale of the North African developments need an appropriate and fast reaction of the EU. At the same time we recommend that the decisions on how to support the democratic changes in the concerned countries must take into consideration wider aspects of the European Neighborhood Policy and should not undermine the commitments already made by the Union in the Eastern Partnership policy. We, at the Civil Society Forum, a community of hundreds of civil society organisations from the EU member states and EaP partner countries, express our readiness to share existing experience with civil society organisations from Northern Africa and Middle East and to contribute to the discussion about the lessons learnt from the implementation of the European Neighborhood Policy”.

In this respect, the Civil Society Forum of EaP will take the contact with the Civil Society organisations and coordination in the South and recommend inviting some of their representatives to take part in the future CSF meeting which will take place in Poznan this year.
The statement also recommends the European Union to take in due count the role of civil society in the next actions in the future Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity with the Southern Mediterranean.

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The local governments of the South East Europe countries want to be involved in a realistic roadmap of integration.

In a declaration signed on the 10th of March, mayors and elected representatives of the local and regional governments of south-east Europe, meeting in occasion of NEXPO, the NALAS international Municipal Fair, that was held in Sarajevo, ask the EU to include the local government dimension in its strategic and operational planning for EU enlargement, and to involve them, in particular via their national associations, in relevant consultation and dialogue.

“Countries and people of South East Europe – says the declaration – need to take their proper place very soon, within the European Union. This will mark another major step towards unifying our continent and thereby enhancing our common goals of peace, stability and sustainable prosperity”.
But to maintain the prospect of EU membership a credible attractive for the citizens, the EU needs to set out a clear, realistic target timetable and roadmap for each State, taking its situation into due account, also on the basis that the necessary steps must be taken in a timely manner to fulfill the criteria for membership, and each country needs to take all necessary steps with each level of government playing its part, the mayors say.

“At present – the declaration underlines – it seems as if the EU’s institutions are under-estimating the essential role of the region’s local governments in preparing for EU integration”.
On the basis of these considerations, in their document mayors and representatives call on the EU’s Institutions to include the local government dimension in its strategic and operational planning for EU enlargement, to involve them in relevant consultations and dialogue and to ensure that relevant accession-related financing programmes are available to assist local government in preparing for accession and achieving a high quality development.
Mayors and representatives ask their national governments to complete and adequate the processes of decentralisation, with the transfer of the necessary competences, financial and human resources, involving local government associations at all stages in the processes of decentralisation, financial decision-making and preparation for EU membership.