Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Regional Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
PRESS RELEASE
Public Funding and the Civil Society Organisations in the Region
Improving the Institutional and Legal Framework for Public Funding
Prishtina, June 18, 2014. – “Improving the Institutional and Legal Framework for Public Funding”, a
regional conference organised by the Technical Assistance to Civil Society Organisations Project (TACSO)
started in Prishtina today.
Public funding is one of the major issues identified by the ‘Guidelines for EU support to civil society in the
enlargement countries, 2014-2020’, but also as one of the most important chains in the context of developing
stronger and more effective CSOs in the region.
At the same time, the whole process related to public funding in relation to available mechanisms, legal
framework, and available practices, is really under-developed which hampers the full potential of the
utilisation of funds available from public institutions for CSOs.
“The focus is to create the acceptance for the need of improving the legal and procedural aspects of public
funding for CSOs. This is massive task and lengthy as well, but we believe that this Conference is important
step in right direction.” – stated Palle Westergaard, TACSO Team Leader. He also added that results and
messages from this conference will be promoted in the region through national follow up events and meetings
thought the region.
The purpose of the conference is to contribute to the improvements of the mechanisms as well as the legal and
procedural aspects of public funding concerning support to civil society organisations (CSOs) in the Western
Balkans and Turkey (WBT).
Besides providing a space for general discussions on the most common issues related to planning and
establishing state funding mechanisms to support CSOs; sharing examples from countries in the Western
Balkans and the European Union (EU) to help illustrate the theoretical issues; as well as highlighting the best
practices in distributing state funding to CSOs; it is expected that the following will derive from the
conference:
 Set and harmonized directions for actions needed for addressing gaps and weaknesses in the overall
cycle of public funding distribution to CSOs in the WBT;
 Increased understanding and initiated development of a roadmap for the improvement of the
effectiveness of the public funding support to the CSOs; and
 Mapping of possible options for the set-up of the required institutional system for the distribution of
state funding to CSOs in accordance with the EU requirements.
The conference is attended by relevant key representatives from public institutions and CSOs from the
Western Balkans and Turkey as well as representatives from EU institutions.
Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organizations – TACSO is an EU funded project. The main objective
of the project is the strengthening of capacities of civil society organizations in the Western Balkans and
Turkey, including the work on public policies relevant to the civil society, networking, establishing dialogue
between CSOs and other institutions and increasing the visibility of CSOs.
For more information please visit the www.tacso.org or contact TACSO Communication Expert Sanela
Tunović at ++ 387 61 539 535 or sanela.tunovic@tacso.org.
TACSO Regional Office • Potoklinica 16 • 71 000 Sarajevo • t: +387 33 532 757 • f: +387 33 532 757 • e-mail: info@tacso.org
SIPU International AB Sweden • Ecorys International • Intrac United Kingdom • Foundation Partners for Local Development Romania
• Euclid Network United Kingdom • SMART Croatia