The Civil Society Forum Trieste that took place on 11th and 12th July that was organised as part of the 4th Intergovernmental Summit of Western Balkans and EU countries brought together more than 100 representatives of civil society organisations with the aim to provide a platform for their greater involvement in the Berlin Process. BCSDN was represented by our Policy and Advocacy Officer, Biljana Spasovska.
The Civil Society Forum was to serve as an opportunity for a wider input to the policy recommendations prepared during the previous expert meeting (Civil Society Forum in Tirana, April 2017). The recommendations were developed in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Italy, as hosts of this year’s Summit focusing around the topics which were high on this summits agenda: business environment and innovation, rule of law, youth cooperation, regional cooperation and bilateral issues. The Civil Society Forum Trieste was organised as a joint initiative of the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB), ERSTE Foundation and the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, in partnership with the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF), and in close cooperation with the Central European Initiative (CEI), Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), Centro Studi Politica Internazionale (CESPI) and Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso.
You can read the recommendations from the civil society to the Balkan Leaders here, and detailed reports from the Civil Society Forum are available for Day 1 and for Day 2.