News and updates from BCSDN and the region
In April last year, 70 CSOs, in an open letter to the Government, urged that a new director should be appointed as soon as possible in order for the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society in Serbia to continue its work regularly. After almost a year since the resignation of Ivana Ćirković, on 17th February
Read more →At the conference “Bell of change”, held in Sarajevo on 2nd February, the Center for Promotion of Civil Society (CPCD) called on the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina to urgently establish functional mechanisms for dialogue with the citizens, stressing the importance of mobilization of all capacities in BiH for speeding up the EU
Read more →As part of the Balkan Public Policy Fund, Centre for Civic Education (CCE) presented the analysis “Facts and prejudice – financing of CSOs and political parties in Montenegro from public funds” on 19th February 2016 in Podgorica. The conference gathered 40 representatives of civil society, political parties and state institutions which invested efforts through constructive
Read more →The ability to assemble and act collectively is vital to democratic, economic, social and personal development, to the expression of ideas and to fostering engaged citizenry. Assemblies can make a positive contribution to the development of democratic systems and, alongside elections, play a fundamental role in public participation, holding governments accountable and expressing the will
Read more →Fostering cooperation between local authorities and civil society has been proven to be an efficient tool to create the necessary conditions for political and social development of communities all across the European Union and its Neighbourhood. Local authorities are called to increase their transparency and accountability as well as to develop mechanisms effectively involving citizens
Read more →The UK government is receiving widespread condemnation for a new clause in grant agreements that will place restrictions on civil society organisations lobbying the government. Last week, 140 UK charities signed a joint letter to the UK Prime Minister David Cameron expressing their deep concern over the proposed clause, and the move has been strongly
Read more →A new report by Brana (Dam), a coalition of 23 CSOs formed at the end of 2014 to monitor the transparency of recovery projects and international donations used in Bosnia after the floods, highlights the lack of transparency on use of reconstruction money. During 2015, Brana monitored the use of 380,320,238.29 KM (approx. EUR 194 mil),
Read more →Charities have lost more than EUR 4.87bn in grants from government over the last decade and, at the continued rate of decline, there will no government grant money for charities by the next general election. This could destroy families and communities across the UK. From a height of EUR 7.7bn in 2003, the total value
Read more →A comparative review of policy and legislation framework for youth participation in the Balkans was conducted within the implementation of the project Balkan regional platform for youth participation and dialogue, implemented by The European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA),and the Balkan Local Democracy Agencies (LDAs) in 5 targeted countries in the Balkans (Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro,
Read more →The Balkan Trust Fund (BTD) has initiated the Belgrade (and Balkans) Chapter of the GMF Young Transatlatic Network (YTN) Programme specifically geared toward young professionals 35 years old and younger. The network aims to strengthen transatlantic relations by offering the next generation of leaders opportunities to engage critically on core challenges facing Europe and the United States,
Read more →On behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the British Embassy Podgorica has opened a call for Bilateral Programme Fund (BPF) and Bilateral Programme Budget (BPB) project bid submissions for the next financial year (April 2016 to March 2017). The Embassy seeks project proposals in line with the following objectives: 1) Political, economic reform and rule
Read more →The MAXCAP Working Paper No. 18 “Judicial Reform in Turkey and the EU‘s Political Conditionality: (Mis)Fit between Domestic Preferences and EU Demands” by Meltem Müftüler-Baç has been published. The paper investigates the process of judicial reform in Turkey in the last 15 years, with a focus on the reversal of such reforms since 2013. It
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