Martina Belić
Lojenov prilaz 8
10 000 Zagreb
Croatia
Tel: + 385 (01) 66 02 684
Mob: + 385 (0) 98 22 12 67
e-mail: martinab@zamir.net
Short minutes of the meeting of CEE Network held in Zagreb on 1st of May, 2004
Chuck introduced the session by recounting the brief history of the Citizens Network’s new
commitment to being proactive. But little progress had been made in the first year of having
any real plans. It was agreed that the Representative Team would spend the first day of their
two day session, preparing a plan for how the Network would be proactive. With funding
support from the Open Society Fund, the Network has promised to propose a draft plan by the
end of the two days together. There would then be a period of two months to consult the
suggested plan in our local communities and to finalize a plan by the end of July.
The first part of the morning was dedicated to the best practices and greatest achievements of
present organizations. After the group work presentation was done, and hopefully the cases
will be part of the best practices «handbook» that will be distributed all over.
The second part of the morning was a brief needs assessment of different regions in the
Central and Eastern countries. The idea behind the work was to elicit burning needs that can
be partly fulfilled through the work of Network. Regions were ad hoc decided upon, so it is
not a template for Network’s future work. The regions were: Balkan, South Caucasus, Eastern
Europe, Central Europe, Baltic and Romania and Bulgaria as region per se.
The needs of different regions have had some similarities but also some differences.
Identified needs on regional level were:
Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro)
 Institutionalization of citizens’ participation
 Research on legislation and systems of implementation
 Collect and share successful stories
Bulgaria and Romania
 Exchange of successful stories
 Legal monitoring and implementation of laws
 Awareness raising and info spread on CP
 Organizing for dialogue with local authorities
 Capacity building for all actors
South Caucasus (Georgia and Armenia)
 Developing sense of being community specially in urban area
 Awareness raising on CP
 Dialogue on local level
 Accountability and transparency of local authorities
Central Europe and Estonia (new members of EU: Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic,
Poland and Estonia)
 Finding new methods for civic engagement
 Introduction of civic education in school curriculum through influencing EU and
national governments
 Funding after accession
 Exchange of good practices
 Opening debate on corporate funding; independence versus governmental funding
Eastern Europe (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine)
 Knowledge, methods, research of Community development
 Funding & resources
 Promotion of our work on local, national and regional level
 Dialogue with local authorities
 Exchanges of good practices
In the afternoon after the review of the needs, main common issues were determined:
 Preparing all actors for dialogue with local authorities - opening and conducting the
dialogue
 Awareness raising and spread of info on Citizen Participation
 Exchange of knowledge, best practices, success stories on CEE regional level
Three groups were formed and they each met and came back with proposed activities. During
the discussion that followed, working groups for the different activity areas were agreed upon.
Membership in these groups was left open and others interested in joining them would be
welcome. The specific proposed activities included:
Exchange of knowledge, best practices, success stories on regional level
The working group consists of: Catalin (Chairperson), Edward, Barbara, Natalia, Slava
and Jiri.
During the first year they are supposed to encourage or force the Network members to send to
Catalin 3 page long case study of their successes in a similar framework that includes:
context, goals, objectives, implementation and results. Best practices will be uploaded on the
web site of the Network and then published on CD, in print, DVD etc.
Also, the exchange of the Network members will be organized. It is of outmost importance to
let the working group know who is willing to accept people from the other groups and share
their experience with them.
During the second year, the special event will be organized for Network members
(conference) and field visits in that country during the event.
Also, during the second year the Network will establish a prize for the best project within the
Network. Criteria for this award have yet to be developed.
Awareness raising and spread of info on Citizen Participation
Working group is: Chuck, Natasa, Kras, Rubina (Chairperson), Angelika, Edlir
The idea is to organize an annual citizen participation week (talk shows, conferences,
trainings, press events etc.). The idea is derived from the Swedish Democracy Day concept.
Several current members already have some related events including Estonia which holds an
annual Citizen Participation Day. (For more information check www.emy.ee.) The week
should be organized during 2005 for the first time. The group agreed that the event will likely
be held in September but the specific week remains to be determined.
There is also an idea to try and get UN, World Bank and other organizations to support and be
part of the event.
Preparing all actors for the dialogue with local authorities, opening and conducting the
dialogue
Working group is: Nicolae (Chairperson), Milan
As the task of this group actually covers much of the work of the Network members, and it is
rather broadly defined, it was agreed that this group needs more time to develop a more
concrete plan. It was also pointed out that it was important part of the methodology to
conduct some further analysis of the situation, which is still missing in the region. It was
mentioned that some of the items related to this issue were also connected with the plans for
training and should be considered when finalizing training for the next two years.