In organization of Pontis Foundation, the 3rd Annual International Conference “Development and Democracy” was held in Bratislava, Slovakia, October 15, 2014. The Conference attracted 200 guests from 27 countries and provided great intellectual and social interaction for the participants. The aim of the conference was to discuss the development cooperation policies especially in the Vishegrad 4 countries and to present the development agenda post MDSs. Miroslav Lajčák, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic took part at the conference when he presented the award for Award for the Field worker in Development Cooperation.…
Author: anja
Nineteen CSOs in Macedonia have jointly initiated efforts towards improving the tax framework for civil society organizations, stressing that the tax policies are of great importance for creating an enabling environment for sustainability and development of civil society. Concretely the initiative targets changes to the law on personal and profit tax necessary for CSOs not to be taxed as for-profit organizations when covering travel, accommodation and other costs for participating in their activities. In a public discussion regarding tax laws that affect CSOs in Macedonia which took place on June 27th, 32 CSO representatives have discussed the need for amendments…
Highlighting the evolution of role civil society plays in the EU integration process in the Balkans, Tanja Hafner Ademi, the Executive Director of BCSDN, is participating to a 2-day expert seminar and policy briefing on the European Neighborhood in perspective taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia on 7-8th October within the framework of the FP& MAXCAP project in which BCSDN is a project partner. The seminar explores different aspects of both Enlargement and Neighborhood policy and possible convergence and is attended by representatives of Georgian public administration, EUD, diplomatic corps, CSOs, media and academia.
BCSDN, together with many other civil society organisations, has been campaigning to ask the European Parliament to reject the nomination of Tibor Navracsics. We are proud to announce that the Culture Committee MEPs voted against the Hungarian Foreign Minister taking on the role of Commissioner for Citizenship, Culture, Education and Youth. A joint letter was produced and a petition was promoted to demand from the European Parliament to blockTibor Navracsics from taking on this crucial post. The Culture committee has accepted that Navracsics can be part of the Commission, but should not have the specific portfolio of citizenship, culture, education…
Despite making several international transparency commitments, the vast majority of Europe’s aid donors are still not sharing enough data about their development activities. The Aid Transparency Index (ATI), released today by Publish What You Fund, is the industry standard for assessing transparency among the top 68 aid-giving organisations, from countries including the U.S. and Germany, to influential organisations such as the World Bank and the Gates Foundation. For the third time now, BCSDN’ has taken part in the ATI evaluations by assessing DG Enlargement. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) came first, knocking the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation off last…
From 1-3 October 2014, representatives of 5 SBPPF grantees attended a study visit in Brussels. The grantees participated on a tailor made study visit with relevant individual meetings that took place in Brussels, with the EU institutions, CSOs and businesses that are relevant for the field of their research. IDSCS and CEA from Macedonia, KCSS from Kosovo supported by Pontis Foundation and Slovakaid; Institute for Environmental Policy from Albania and CERD BIH supported by BCSDN through the IPA FPA project participated on the visit. Joint meetings were organized in the EP with MEP Kukan that has a long term experience…
Centre for Development of NGOs (CRNVO) invites all companies, civil society organizations and individuals interested in CSR and social entrepreneurship to apply for the school and find out why corporate social responsibility is part of the European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The school comprises lectures and trainings which will take place during October and November 2014, and a mentorship programme lasting until April 2015. The aim of the school is to: get practical advice about how can the companies, institutions, and organizations be socially responsible towards employees, customers, the community in which they operate and the environment;…
The European Commission in 2012 awarded 18 grants to networks of CSOs from the Western Balkans, Turkey, and the European Union to enter into partnership with each other and the Commission with the aim to define and implement strategies in key sectors for Civil Society development. The project leaders, their partners of these so called Framework Partnerships and the European Commission’s, Civil Society Facility Team at DG Enlargement, got together on the 24-25 of September in Brussels to exchange views on what they have achieved and the way forward in the following second phase of the projects. The closing conference…
A total of 21 public policy papers have been published in a joint Slovak Balkan Public Policy Fund (SBPPF) publication, prepared by BCSDN. Considering that the EU accession process is the key transformation and reform factor, the effort of the SBPPF Programme was focused on assisting both CSOs and individual young researchers in the development of concrete policy products that analyse considerably different but equally important topics related to public interest. Through this second round of the SBPPF programme, 21 grantees (organizations and individuals) prepared quality policy outputs, revolving around two priority themes 1) Democracy and the rule of law…
A total of 975 CSOs from across Europe, including BCSDN, have signed the appeal in support of civil society in Hungary, urging the institutions of the European Union and the Council of Europe to take action against the increasing pressure on civil society organizations by the Hungarian government. In the past period, not only did Viktor Orban’s government increase its control over the media and the judiciary, it also increased thew control over civil society. The situation was exacerbated when, on September 8th, unannounced policemen raided the premises of two Hungarian organizations – Ökotárs and DemNet. Then on September 19th,…