Central and Eastern European Citizens Network, Newsletter
March, 2007
You can read in this issue:
 News from C.E.G.A. Foundation from Bulgaria
 Pre-election Campaign in Slovakia and activities of
Center for Community Organizing (CCO)
 Serbia – President Tadic presided over the meeting with
the Council for relations with civil society
 Poverty and unemployment like a treat for Ukrainian
integration into EU
 Many news from Agora CE – plenty of activities on both
national and international level
 CCI BiH started monitoring authorities at all levels
1
C.E.G.A. Foundation, Bulgaria
An English version of the monograph “Desegregation of Roma
schools in Bulgaria” is now available in C.E.G.A. Foundation. The
monograph is dedicated to one of the most controversial educational
processes in Bulgaria – the school desegregation. This process has
the intention to give equal chance to Roma children to have access
to high quality education. The study presented in the book is the first
attempt for showing the positive side of the educational
desegregation of Roma students. The research carried out is focused
on the Bulgarian language skills of Roma students, as their second
language. Based on the research findings the author makes
suggestions how the process to be changed. “Desegregation of Roma
schools in Bulgaria” is published by C.E.G.A. Foundation. If you are
interested you can request the monograph to: cega@cega.bg.
Case studies have been produced in the context of the program ‘Transnational
Learning on Local Partnerships and Action Plans to Combat Poverty and Roma
Exclusion’. The program is co-funded by the European Commission, led by Hungarian
Foundation for Self-reliance in partnership with C.E.G.A. Foundation. The 8 case
studies presented in the publication are based on local experiences in partnership
building among Roma and local authorities in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and
Slovakia. In particular, the case studies describe how and why partnerships are
formed, and what are some of the main benefits and challenges to participatory
approaches to local development. Among the cases, there are examples of creating
municipal strategies to improve access to education and promote economic
development, programs to re-integrate long-term unemployed, processes for
launching local development processes, creating a platform of Roma NGOs to serve as
the partner of the local administration, and setting up a Social Inclusion Partnership.
To request a Case study publication: j.tanaka@pakiv.org
The network of C.E.G.A. “Different Together” already would function as a platform. It
has been decided during its regular meeting in 2006. At the meeting all of the 22
organizations and initiative groups developed and accepted rules of the platform. The
main purpose of the platform is to work for sustainable development of disadvantaged
communities as: minorities, children in risks and youths. One of the key tasks of the
platform is to ensure representatives on local, regional and national level in the new
conditions of EU.
C.E.G.A. Foundation has delivered two trainings to its platform’s members on
“Strategic planning” and “Financial mechanisms for NGOs from EU funds”. There were
themes like SWOT and STEP analysis, missions, visions, strategic aims, action
planning, human recourses management etc.
Representative of C.E.G.A. has participated in the work of the 1st Regional session of
the European Youth Parliament for South East Europe. The session has taken place in
Macedonia, Ohrid and gathered 126 youths from 10 countries. There were 9th
2
commissions and each had to developed resolutions with measures for solving
problems. The representative of C.E.G.A. has taken part in the Human Rights
Commission and the issue discussed by the commission was “How to ensure rights
protection on the Balkan with special focus on minority rights”. Find out more about
European Youth Parliament Session
Center for Community Organizing, Slovakia
Pre-election campaign in Banska Bystrica
By Chuck Hirt
The Center for Community Organizing (CCO) undertook a pre-election campaign in
Banska Bystrica near the end of 2006 in conjunction with its partner organization,
Citizens for the City (CftC). The strong interest to undertake this campaign started
near the beginning of the year when citizens groups continued to have considerable
difficulty developing any kind of cooperation with the Mayor and decided that they
wanted to work hard to change the local political situation. As the year went on, a
number of negative encounters with City Council also heightened the interest to
undertake the campaign.
With help of a grant from the Open Society Institute, the proposed project undertook
two main objectives. The first was to better inform citizens about the performance of
those elected four years earlier and the second objective was to ensure a good turnout
for the local election, scheduled for the 2nd of December.
A group of citizens from CftC agreed to serve on the campaign advisory committee
and helped to prepare the overall strategy. Most of the emphasis was placed on
informing citizens. This was done in four specific ways. The first was that an analysis
was prepared of the activities undertaken by the City as well as City Council each of
the preceding years and published in three editions of a “Monitor”. Approximately
10,000 copies of each edition were printed and distributed by volunteers. The Monitor
served to spark considerable interest on the part of citizens as future editions were
often awaited and discussed. This activity also proved to be controversial as one of
the members of City Council wrote a letter to Open Society to complain about the
Monitor. After further investigation and discussions with additional members of City
Council and CCO and CftC, Open Society agreed they were comfortable with a
continuation of the activity.
The second activity was to undertake a Mayoral candidates’ forum. All candidates
running for Mayor (there were ten candidates) were invited and the public as well. All
but two attended. One of the two was the current Mayor who eventually came to the
candidates’ forum with his wife approximately a half hour after it started and refused
to join the panel of candidates. After sitting in the audience and saying nothing for
nearly an hour, he left. The event was fairly well attended and got media coverage as
well.
3
The third activity and most time consuming was an analysis of votes taken by City
Council over the previous four years. A listing of approximately seventy votes on
issues of potential interest to citizens was prepared by staff from CCO. Citizens met
for a long evening to review each of the previous votes and narrowed the list to
approximately thirty five. They also indicated which way they would have wanted
their City Council member to have voted on each issue. The results of all the votes
were then tabulated and members were ranked based on their support (or lack of
support) for citizens’ interests. The final results were then transformed into report
cards. A press conference was held to describe the results and actual report cards
were prepared and distributed to each member of City Council. Another 10,000 copies
of the results were printed and inserted into the last Monitor and distributed around
the city.
The final information activity was the preparation of a Citizens’ Agenda in which items
of significance to citizens was prepared by CCO and discussed, modified and
eventually approved by CftC. The Citizens’ Agenda was then distributed to each of the
candidates for Mayor and City Council. There were several activities also done which
attempted to encourage people to go out and vote. Plastic chips which could be used
for grocery carts were printed with a small imprint encouraging citizens to vote.
These were distributed around various neighborhoods and shopping centers.
The results of the campaign were overwhelmingly successful. A new Mayor was
elected. The previous Mayor came in a distant third. But possibly more notable was
that nearly all the members of City Council who were running again for office but who
had scored low on the citizens report cards, were voted out of office. There was one
notable exception but the overall trend was striking. The turnout was not as
noticeably affected by the activities, however.
The long term impact of the newly elected Mayor and City Council members is not yet
known. The most noticeable sign of change already is that the new Mayor has been
exceptionally open to meeting with citizen groups including CftC within the first
months of his election. Previous Mayors generally refused to attend such meetings.
CCO and CftC have applied for another grant to continue to monitor activities of the
new City Council and to push for implementation of the Citizens’ Agenda including
changes in the manner of citizen participation in the city.
For more information contact Chuck at chuck@cko.sk or check web site: www.cko.sk
4
Civic Initiatives,Serbia
The President of the Republic of Serbia, Mr Boris Tadic, presided over the meeting of
the Council for relations with civil society, established in mid January for the purpose
of providing a permanent contact and dialogue concerning important social issues of
interest to both society and the state.
President Tadic highlighted that the establishment of the Council is the first step
towards insitutionalization of relations between the state and the civil society, and will,
in Mr President’s words, promote the idea of institutionalization at the parliamentary
and governmental level.
One of the priorities of the Council in the upcoming period will be commencement of
the initiative for legislation of the Law on associations, which would improve the
position, operation and financing of the associations and non-government
organizations in the society.
The meeting, attended by the president of the council Mr Zoran Lutovac, Ksenija
Milivojević, Miljenko Dereta, Dr Snežana Đorđević, Mr Vladimir Todorović, Dr Vukašin
Pavlović, and Vladimir Pešić, emphasized that the Council will promote the idea of
establishing partner-relations between the state and the civil society, in the best
interest of citizens and the state.
Belgrade, February 19, 2007.
Regional Development Agency, Ukraine
Poverty and unemployment like a treat for Ukrainian integration into EU
By Dmytro Koval
The integration processes which are actively passing in Eastern Europe today are
actual for Ukrainian also. Many people and government bodies talking about
possibilities for Ukraine to became a member of EU in nearest future. Many politics
and authorities discuss the questions regarding how Ukrainian economy prepared for
European integration, how European economy and technologies corresponding with
European, new possibilities for trade development and labor force migration. These all
aspects, of cause, will make influence for Ukrainian integration policy, but some
problems like poverty and unemployment will treat the success of this process.
The poverty and unemployment are the internal problems of Ukraine, and as we
know these problems are more dangerous for the country development. Poverty and
unemployment reduce the opportunity to be more competitive on the labor markets
for Ukrainian society and attract new technologies.
5
For Ukraine is actual the problems of old industrial territories where all
enterprises were close down in short time, and people were can’t to change own skills
and abilities towards new market demands. These territories today calls like
“depressive territories”.
These territories have common features: each of them has a closed
manufacturing industry, which had provided the living conditions of the population,
besides their square and population quantity indices are almost the same. All of these
territories are related to so-called old-industrial regions, which at present time are
subjected to significant transformation processes in economic and social spheres.
The local unemployment level in former mining towns makes up about 30 per
cent; the population of territories subjected to the restructuring process lost the
availability of numerous social services. The level of social passivity achieves the
highest point: people don’t want to study for new professions, they don’t want to
relocate for new job places, and they not care about future of own children and
themselves.
For our opinion the source of these problems are in the lack of education for these
category of people. Lack of education and very low self-estimation can provoke the
sense of “inferiority”.
In this difficult situation begin to arise many social problems. The people who
are during a long time were unemployed select a crime way for their survival. Some
times these problems may be mixed with ethnical and religious intolerance that more
dangerous and terrible. The conflicts which can arise on this ground may destroy the
democracy changes in society which has been achieved during last years.
And for sustainable democracy development in Ukraine is too necessary to
overcome the poverty and unemployment in our society (or decrease the level and
quantity), develop common projects among organization and companies form different
countries, experience exchange, international meeting and conferences (directed on
the certain social problems) which can enhance democracy and tolerance and bring
new hope for the future constructive development. And then we can competent talking
about Ukrainian integration into the “European family”.
Agora CE, Czech Republic
Agora Central Europe in 2006
Agora CE continued organising public debates. The most important were debate on
foreign policy in cooperation with a renowned human rights festival, One World,
debate on The Holocaust and a debate on homeless people, which boasted high
quality and, surprisingly, considerable attendance.
The series of debates peaked with three pre-election debates called "Who To Vote
For?" organised in cooperation with the Archa theatre.
In the past six months, we have succeeded in completing the second year of our
discussion contest On the Way to the Parliament. In the spring, we organised four
regional rounds of the discussion contest, in which a total of 32 schools took part, and
a final in Lichtenstein Palace in Prague.. Students were very well prepared for the
6
contest and they showed excellent performances. All schools that have taken part in
this year's On the Way to the Parliament want to participate in the contest next year
as well.
Our main activities in citizen participation projects were two big projects:
Community Planning of Social Services in the Vysočina Region as well as Educating
Participants in the Community Planning of Social Services in Prague's Districts.
One of the most important projects was Engaging the Public in Community Policing in
Zruč nad Sázavou. Community policing is a new interesting target area for Agora.
Other participatory projects were The Involvement of Citizens in Improving the Quality
of Life in Czech Prefab Housing Estates, Involvement of citizens into Strategic Planning
in Dobřany and
Preparing Development Strategy for the Královéhradecký Region.
We also organized for the first time the Green Day. Its goal was to inform the public
about possibilities of living in town and acting as friendly to the environment as
possible. The event involved discussions on environment-related issues; people with
children took part in different games and contests. A significant part was the
participation of citizens who were allowed to decide on the future of a plane tree
orchard in one of the biggest parks in Prague in a planned mini-referendum.
International Projects
Since the beginning of 2006, Agora CE has been active in Serbia, where it leads a
project called Partnership Building at the Local Level in Serbia. The project is financed
by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Open Society Fund, and its goal is to
spread the ideas of partnership and citizen participation in the decision-making
process in this country in transition.
Cooperation on Projects in Croatia
From autumn 2005 to spring 2006, Agora CE staff took part in several missions to the
Slavonia region in Croatia, where they assisted in talks on the implementation of
several participation projects.
A fourth international conference called Joint Planning, organised by Agora Central
Europe in cooperation with VCVS , an educational centre for public administration,
under the auspices of Prague Mayor Pavel Bém, was held at the Prague Municipal
Office in June.
The objective of the conference was to present and discuss modern approaches to
cooperation with the public and partnership building in public administration, as
employed in the EU.
Publications
Our revised Handbook was published. It describes methods and techniques of
participation with practical examples from our work.
7
Centers for Civic Initatives, Bosnia and Herzegovina
CCI BiH started monitoring authorities at all levels
Recently CCI promoted a brochure “Code of conduct for elected officials” and
announced the continuation of activities on adoption of Code of conduct, so as to
foster a culture of dialogue among MPs and general efficiency in the work of not only
cantonal assemblies but higher government institutions also.
CCI and Parliamentary Assembly of BiH have concluded, fey weeks ago, to initiate the
Parliamentary procedure for adopting the Code of conduct in April 2007. The Code of
conduct should increase the efficiency of the MPs work,as well as their accountability
responsibility towards the citizens.
Within the program that initiated foundation of the Citizens movement named GROZD,
that gathered over 200 NGOs from BiH and over 500 000 signatures for the Citizens
platform in the pre- election period- Citizens platform is a list 12 crucial problems that
BiH citizens identified and put before the political parties demanding that the future
(now actual) authorities set those issues as priorities for the next 4 years. As a next
step CCI and its partner organizations have already sent the recommendations for the
Working Program of the Government of Republika Srpska (of of two entities in BiH).
The same thing will be done for the BiH Government and the Government of FBiH
(entity of BiH).
In the frame of this program CCI has announced the “entering” into the all authorities
level in order to monitor the work of both legislative and executive authorities at all
levels. Trough these and other activities CCI and its partners will identify those
individuals who will not work in the interest of citizens. The goal of these activites is to
make pressure of the new Government to start working on the priority issues for BiH
citizens as soon as possible.
“CCI will monitor the work of the executive and legislative governments at cantonal,
entities` and state level, which is the first time that NGO sector will systematically
monitor the work of these government levels, inform the public and, should it be
needed, mobilise the public. We are serious in our intentions to exert pressure on the
government to tackle problems of citizens described in the Civic platform, and we shall
not hesitate to call upon and request resignation of those who will not be working in
the interests of BiH citizens», said CCI representative at one of our press conference
held in this year.
www.ccibh.org
8