The co-operation of civil society with local authorities is an important prerequisite of democratic governance that could contribute to further stability and sustainable development in the Western Balkan region, as demonstrated within the project “participation and intercultural governance at local level in the balkans: challenges and European perspectives”.
The leading applicant of the project was the city administration of Subotica; ALDA, the LDAs of Subotica, Mostar and Osijek and the Lighthouse Media centre of Wolverhampton (UK) were the partners of the project, equally involved.
In the opening session of the final conference of the project that was held in Mostar, (30th March – 2nd April 2011) the participants were addressed by Mr. Ljubo Beslic, Mayor of the city of Mostar.

In his welcoming speech, he stressed the importance of the events promoting intercultural governance in the city that has gone through armed clashes and destruction during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and whose remnants are still visible. However, efforts are constantly being made to alleviate and overcome the consequences of the recent past and the city is seeking the solutions in support to development oriented policies that would suit the needs of all the citizens. Mr. Slavko Parac, President of the City Assembly of Subotica, greeted the participants on behalf of the Lead partner, the city with the centuries long history of multicultural coexistence among local national communities in the border area connecting Serbia, Hungary and Croatia. The consequences of the recent conflicts in the region however imposed the need for the local government to open up new space for improving intercultural dialogue, multilingual education and promoting diverse cultural identities that are all incorporated in local development strategy. Mr. Jovo Jelic, greeted the participants on behalf of the Osijek/Baranja county-Croatia. He informed about the efforts aimed at overall economic reconstruction and interethnic confidence building in the war affected zones in the region, reiterating the need for intensified cross-border and regional co-operation links between different local communities. Ms. Suzan Arslan wished a successful work to the conference on behalf of DG Enlargement-Regional Programmes, and informed the participants about the P2P Programme and Civil Society Facility (CSF) developed in order to support the regional co-operation initiatives with the view of overall democratic transformation of the Western Balkan societies aspiring to EU integration. She also noted that the co-operation of civil society with local authorities, as demonstrated within this project, is an important prerequisite of democratic governance that could contribute to further stability and sustainable development in the region.
During the second part of the opening session, an overview of the project activities and some of the key results achieved was made by Ms. Stanka Parac Damjanovic, Project manager.

Main project outcomes and publications are available on: www.regionalicc.net

Thematic panels
The conference gathered more than 80 participants, representing CSO-s and local governments from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, UK, Italy, Norway, Hungary and Moldova. Mr. Owen Masters, CoE expert was facilitating the Panel 1 on the participation of minorities, during which the case studies presented were from Hungary, Serbia, Moldova. Examples of activities of the Croat minority association in Szeged, efforts of the Roma education centre aimed at inclusion in Subotica, and confidence building measures initiated on both sides of the river Dnjestre in Moldova. Mr. Gunnar Mandt, Director of the European Wergeland Centre, Norway was the facilitator of the panel: From multicultural coexistence to intercultural governance, that provided an overview of innovative mechanisms and institutional structures in support to democratic governance at local level in culturaly diverse local communities. Examples from Norway, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia were presented, and comparisons made in regard with local governance models in traditional multicultural communities facing with the post-conflict reconciliation process in the Western Balkan region with cultural diversity as a result of migratory waves to EU member states taking place over the last sixty years. Specific attention in presentations was given to education (both informal and formal) and culture, as the areas falling within the scope of competencies at local tier of governance. The panel 3 facilitated by Ms. Jlenia Destito, Ipres Institute for socio economic researches, Italy, was devoted to municipal service provision with the case studies ranging from participatory planning process, education and public information provision in minority languages, preservation of cultural identities, financing policies and housing for migrants. Presentations included case studies from Devon (UK), Subotica, Kovacica (Serbia), Szeged (Hungary) and the host city Mostar.

During the session 4, which was facilitated by Mr. Vehid Sehic, Citizens’ Forum Tuzla (BiH) issues related with the role of civil society in intercultural dialogue and reconciliation process were discussed. The panelists, CSO representatives and experts from the three countries included in the action gave an overview of recent developments as regards the political, social and economic factors relevant for the progress made in regional co-operation initiatives. Specific attention was given to the potential role of civil society as the catalyst of the democratic change and an actor capable to bring EU integration values closer to the citizens and this way help reduce inter-ethnic distance in post-conflict societies. Therefore, education for democratic citizenship with particular emphasis on youth and opening of a new space for dialogue engaging widest possible actors in regional co-operation programmes could bring more tangible results in the long run.
During the concluding session, facilitated by Stanka Parac Damjanovic, ALDA Regional Programmes Coordinator, an overview of on-going programmes was made on TACSO regional co-operation and technical assistance to CSO-s in Western Balkan and Turkey, the potential role of Hungarian EU presidency in promoting EU enlargement, as well as other regional initiatives of interest for the CSO-s and local governments, such as the Danube strategy, functional euroregions connecting the countries of the Western Balkans and EU member states ( such as DKMT Euro-region).
BE-ME Perspective was designed as a thematic session facilitated by Mr. Frank Challenger and as an opportunity to view the documentaries on the three cities (Subotica, Osijek, Mostar) made during the project as an illustration of efforts made by the local governments to promote cultural heritage of national communities and support their participation in policy decision making process. Personal testimonies and narratives from different sections of local societies constitute the main background of the documentaries thus illustrating the present challenges and everyday problems of ethnic, religious minorities in the Westerna Balkan region and as a comparison, in the city of Wolverhampton as well.

Round Table in the city hall Mostar, 2nd April 2011
The delegation composed of the representatives of the city of Subotica and Osijek Baranja county paid a visit to the city hall Mostar, where they were addressed by Mr. Murat Coric, President of the City Council. He presented the local elected bodies operating since 2004., and also some of the main local policies in areas of social and economic development, considering the heavy legacy of conflicts and visible remnants of the destruction in the city. The local government is facing with large scale infrastructural works particularly in water supply and sewage system, while also there is an evident need for improvements in housing and agricultural development.
Much has been done in connecting the city with a wide range of international partners, including the cities in Europe and in the Western Balkans, while the good governance, citizen participation, promotion of cultural heritage of the national communities are among the priorities in these co-operation programmes. Good economic links have also been established with a number of cities, including Kragujevac in Serbia. There is certainly an interest to increase the scope of potential partner cities and establish co-operation with Subotica and Osijek. Therefore, as Mr. Coric reiterated, networking among the cities is the future of this region and will certainly contribute to stability, economic prosperity and improved outlooks for EU integration.

Study visit to Mostar, Saturday, 2nd April 2011
After the conference, a group of participants had an opportunity to visit the historic sites and cultural monuments in the downtown area of the city of Mostar.

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

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.

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/

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.

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.

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.

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.