Dear Participants,
On behalf of all partners we would like to thank you for your active contribution to the 5th Danube Participation Day in Sofia on 17th October 2018.
You can already find the pictures, presentations, speeches, letters and videos of the event on this site as well as the actual electronic version of The Agenda for Participation in EU Macro-Regional Strategies Anchoring European Integration and Democracy through Participation below.
We look forward to seeing you all in Romania 2019 and please stay tuned for upcoming events in 2018 and 2019.
Organizational Team
Contact: office@foster-europe.org
Use the short links below to go to:
Programme
5th Danube Participation Day
Venue: House of Europe, 124, G.S. Rakovski Str., Sofia, Bulgaria
Moderation: Daniela Urschitz and Belin Molov
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09:00 – 09:30 Registration
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09:30 – 10:00 Opening Session
Iva Taralezhkova, Citizens Participation Forum, Sofia, Bulgaria
Claudia Singer, Priority Area 10 Institutional Capacity & Cooperation of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, Vienna, Austria
Denitsa Nikolova, National Coordinator, Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, Sofia, Bulgaria (tbc)
Yordanka Fandakova, Mayor of Sofia, Bulgaria
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10:00 – 10:30 Key Note
Democratic Values, Participation Environment, and Civic Space, Tony Nikolov, Culture Portal, Sofia, Bulgaria
Interactive Q & A
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10:30 – 10:45 Coffee Break
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10:45 - 11:00 Short Report on the National Participation Days and National Hearings in 2018, Daniela Stojkovic, Danube Civil Society Forum and NGO World and Danube, Novi Sad, Serbia
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11:00 – 12:00 Shining Examples of Providing and Using Civic Space
1. Construction of Small Derivative Hydro Power Plants in Serbia - Minimal Power Production Benefit, Maximal Environmental Socioeconomic and Demographic Detriment, Slavica Jovanovic Kubat, Lets Defend the Rivers of the Old Mountain, Belgrade, Serbia
2. Successful examples of public policy making in a participative and evidence-based manner, Milan Andrejkovič, Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government for the Development of the Civil Society, Bratislava, Slovakia
3. Participative governance for sustainable development of local communities from the Danube floodplain through wetland restoration, Raluca Dan, WWF Romania, Bucharest , Romania
4. Project International Summer School Dealu Frumos, Students of the International Summer School Dealu Frumos, Dealu Frumos, Romania
5. Vision For Sofia - a model for municipality-driven participatory strategic planning, Miglena Gerasimova, Municipality of Sofia, Bulgaria
Interactive Q & A
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12:00 – 13:00 Networking Lunch
During the lunch break we will display videos, introducing participating organisations and projects of the afternoon panel: Speed Dating.
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13:00 – 15:00 Speed Dating Panel
This session is open to all participants. This panel aims to open the space for participants, to present new initiatives, ideas for projects, (to find possible partners, to present ongoing initiatives and projects, and to present best practice initiatives and projects.
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15:00 – 16:30 EUSDR Next Steps
Update on the implementation of the Macro Regional Strategies and the EUSDR, Csaba Hende, European Commission, Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy, Unit D1 Competence Centre Macro-regions and European Territorial Cooperation, Brussels, Belgium
Rudolf Schicker, Coordinator of the Danube Strategy Point
Report on The Agenda for Participation and Outlook 2019, Claudia Singer, Priority Area 10 Institutional Capacity & Cooperation of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, Vienna, Austria & Stefan A. Lütgenau, Danube Civil Society Forum/ Foster Europe, Foundation for strong European Regions, Eisenstadt, Austria
Interactive Q & A
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16:30 – 17:00 Closing remarksand Passing the Bell
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18:00 Venue: Sofia History Museum, 1 Banski Sq, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Evening Reception & Guided Tour upon invitation
Welcome and Opening Addresses
Todor Chobanov, Deputy Mayor of Sofia for Culture, Education and Sports Bulgaria
Artem Bidenko, State Secretary of the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine
Involving Civil Society - current situation and future perspectives, Theresa Schopper, Minister of State, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
*Program might be subject to change
Registration - CLOSED
This year´s Danube Participation Day, 17 October 2018, [with the working title of] EXPANDING CIVIC SPACES - PARTICIPATION STRATEGIES IN THE DANUBE REGION will deal with the growing problem of reducing civic space on various levels in state, administration, media and society and will discuss and present counter strategies for civil society and its organizations.
The 5th Danube Participation day will be preceded by a two day working seminar that will bring together Civil Society Actors from the Danube Region for an in-depth discussion and project development related to the theme of the Danube Participation Day. The seminar is held with support of the Central European Initiative, CEI, 15-16 October 2018, organized by the Citizen Participation Forum and co-organized by the DCSF, in Sofia Bulgaria. (Registration for the seminar days will be open soon.)
The registration for the 5th Danube Participation Day is CLOSED.
*As space is limited for this event, seats will be allocated on a “first come, first served” . We want to ensure participation of as many organisations, institutions, NOGs as we can, for this reason we favour to have1 person/ organisation. We also strive to having a geographical and thematic balance.
We would also like to encourage you all to take an active part in the programme by sending us a short video about your initiative/project/project idea to join our All Danube Speed Dating Panel (Exhibition Space) in the afternoon. The applicants with submitted videos will receive extra visibility during the 5th DPD. For more information please see the All Danube Speed Dating Guidelines in the section Get Involved!.
The final program and other technical information will be also accessible soon. Please follow us for most recent information.
We remain at your disposal for any further information or assistance, and look forward to meeting you in Sofia.
Additional Information:
The 5th Danube Participation Day was co-financed by the Central European Initiative, Citizen Participation Forum, Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, Agapedia, Stadt Wien, European Union, Danube Transnational Programme, Priority Area 10 - Insitutional capacity and cooperation, Danube Civil Society Forum and Foster Europe Foundation for strong European Regions. The orgaisation of it cost € 46.105,- (€ 23.838 direct costs plus € 22.267 indirect costs).
ALL DANUBE SPEED DATING
Submit your VIDEO story and get promoted across the Danube Region!
Would you like to present your project? Would you like to meet new partners, make new synergies, find a match for your project/initiative?
The organizers of the upcoming 5th Danube Participation Day to be held in Sofia on the 17th October 2018 invite you to take active part in its Agenda by sending in a short video! The 5th Danube Participation Day will feature an All Danube Speed Dating Panel. This panel aims to open the space for participants
to present new initiatives, ideas for projects, ( to find possible partners)
to present ongoing initiatives and projects,
to present best practice initiatives and projects.
Why to get involved?
The applicants will receive extra visibility during the 5th DPD; their initiative/ project will be included in the Speed Dating Panel (Exhibition Space) of the afternoon session. They will have a table/ stand and will be able to tell or display their initiative/ project to other interested participants and search for possibilities to disseminate the model or find more partners for the implementation of the idea.
All submitted videos will be promoted online and during the 5th Danube Participation Day!
Who can submit the video?
All interested participants coming to the 5th Danube Participation Day. The number of submitted videos per participant is not limited!
How can you submit the video?
You can submit the video directly by clicking here or if you experience any difficulties you can contact us at office@foster-europe.org.
What should be included in the video?
The introduction of participating organizations;
The description and details of the project, idea , initiative e.g.;
Problem/Current state of art
Objectives
Target Groups/Beneficiaries
The lessons learnt.
The videos should not exceed 1 minute and maximum of 500MB. The video file name should include: name of the sender organization and the project acronym.
When is the deadline of the video?
Participants can submit the videos from 10th May 2018 to 10th September 2018!
*By participating and submitting your videos and personal data you agree to appear on the list of attendants, with the name, institution, position and e-mail address. You also agree that the videos will be used by organizers to present them online and offline before, during and after the 5th Danube Participation Day.
For the videos reperesented at the Speed Dating Panel please follow the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ayjfYMR-2fcMv7d-9CVmb9psC4DMEk4J?usp=sharing
Read into the topic - what others find about it
What others find about the topic
We want to share with you various news, reports, articles, indexes on the topic of the upcoming 5th Danube Participation Day [with the working title of] Expanding Civic Spaces Participation Strategies in the Danube Region, which will deal with the growing problem of reducing civic space on various levels in state, administration, media and society and will discuss and present counter strategies for civil society and its organizations.
Below you can find and download opinions and research results published by renowned:
European Institutions
Shrinking space for civil society the EU response, EU Parliament, 2017
2018 European Semester: Country Report Hungary, EU Commission, p. 21
Challenges facing Civil Society Organizations Working on Human Rights in the EU, FRA, 2017
Guidelines for civil participation in political decision making, Council of Europe, 2017 [Niall Sheerin, COE already refered to this document in his presentation at the 4th Danube Participation Day in Budapest]
Macro-regional strategies and their links with cohesion policy, European Comission, 2017
Reports on the Country visits of the Conference of INGOs, ongoing
Research policy center
European and international NGOs
Politicians in the Danube Region
We will keep updating the list constantly.
Please do not hesitate to share with us your inputs under office@foster-europe.org.