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| Title: | FOSTERING CIVIL DIALOGUE IN EUROPE: | ||
Description: | The project aims to explore and analyse experiences with civil dialogue in Europe, by realising an inventory of civil dialogue good practices across Europe at all levels: local, regional, national and European. Considering that civil society has developed and got structured in different ways in different parts of Europe, the evaluation will focus on a comparison between good practices in older Member States (before 2004) and recent Member States (2007). The concept of civil dialogue is a new principle at national and European levels, in contrast with social dialogue. Despite its novelty as a concept, it has always been a condition for European membership, as a means to foster an active European citizenship and to promote European values. While more and more civil dialogue initiatives at all levels (local, regional, national, European) have emerged, there is evidence that the civil dialogue processes are carried out with certain difficulties. | ||
| Location: | Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Romania | ||
| Duration: | August 2007 to July 2008 | ||
| Aim: | The project aims to foster a common debate and reflection on civil dialogue at all levels as an expression of active European citizenship among civil society organisations belonging to old Member States and new Member States. | ||
Beneficiaries: | Citizens and civil society organizations in various countries across Europe active in the field of citizenship and civil dialogue at all levels. Civil society organizations in this case act as an interface between citizens and other actors within society. | ||
Activities: | 1. Study of the state of the art concerning civil dialogue and civil society in the countries of origin of the project partners. The purpose of the study is to produce 4 articles on civil dialogue in each country represented in the project. 2. Creating a European bilingual website (www.beingcitizen.eu) on citizenship and participation that will provide citizens, civil society organisations and all actors interested in these matters with information, articles, good practices, training materials and contact data on civil dialogue across Europe. 3. A European workshop organised in Vienna and hosted by one of the project partners – The World of NGOs. The role of the meeting is to discuss project activities and methodologies among partners and plan each stage of the project. 4. Identification of best practices of civil dialogue across Europe – each project partner will collect 5 best practices on civil dialogue from its own country or from other countries relevant for the project. A questionnaire developed with the contribution of all partners will be used for the collection of good practices. 5. Issuing two newsletters (one in January and one in March) containing information about the project and its development, good practices collected, articles on civil dialogue in Europe and announcements of various events organised within the project. 6. A workshop organised in Bucharest (Romania) – with the purpose to discover and discuss practices related to civil dialogue in new Member States. The purpose of the seminar is to give voice and listen to participants on the issue of structuring civil dialogue at various levels. 7. Final conference in Brussels (Belgium) – the purpose of the conference is to build a bridge between actors at local, national and European levels. The conference will be organised as an open meeting to which will be invited citizens, representatives of civil society organisations and European networks, public authorities, European civil servants and companies. 8. Producing a bilingual (French/English) publication - an Educational and Training Guide on civil dialogue that will provide representatives of civil society organisations with concrete and basic tools to understand civil dialogue and to develop it at all levels. The Guide will consist of various good practices from countries across Europe that will be collected during the project. | ||
Current Stage: | On the 14th of March 2008 was held in Bucharest the European seminar “Civil Dialogue - a new challenge for NGOs and State Institutions” organized by two of the partners participating in the project Foundation PACT and CeRe – The Resource Centre for Public Participation. The seminar was structured in three main parts. The first part was dedicated to clarifying the concept of civil dialogue in relation to other concepts from the same sphere like social dialogue and active citizenship, the way it emerged at the European level and its added value. Representatives of three important social spheres – academia, policy making and civil society held presentations. The second part was dedicated to presenting and analyzing practices related to civil dialogue from Romania and Bulgaria. The lessons and experiences presented were analysed with the support of Western partners. The third part was dedicated to the sphere of social economy as a specific illustration of authentic social dialogue. At the event participated representatives of non-profit organizations, government institutions and independent experts, from Romania and representatives of civil society organizations from Austria, Belgium, France and Bulgaria. At present, each project partner works with other organizations within its own country to collect good practices related to civil dialogue. Partners together work for the preparation of the second project workshop to be held in Bucharest and hosted by Foundation PACT. The project was launched during a meeting organized between the 10th and 11th of October in Vienna and hosted by World of NGOs, one of the project partners. During the meeting the project activities and methodology have been thoroughly discussed by all partners. Tools that will be further used in the project like: questionnaire for collecting good practices, the website and structure of the guide have been drafted. | ||
Project results: | - 8 project partners will improve their knowledge and understanding of civil dialogue and will be better prepared to initiate in the future dialogues between various actors at local, national and European level - 4 articles on civil dialogue experiences within 4 different countries - A website on citizen participation and civil dialogue in Europe (www.beingcitizen.eu) - 2 project newsletters - A network of organizations acting for stimulating and promoting civil dialogue in Europe will be created. - A guide will be created containing best practices on civil dialogue and tools used to initiate and develop civil dialogue at various levels. - At least 100 institutions of various types across Europe (civil society organizations, public institutions, firms) will become more aware of the importance of civil dialogue and means to accomplish it | ||
| Funders: | European Commission, Education and Culture DG, ‘Europe for Citizens’ Programme 2007-2013 | ||
| Partners: | European think tank Pour la Solidarité, Belgium (lead partner)
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| Project documents: | European_guide_for_civil_dialogue.pdf Cover_guide_for_civil_dialogue.pdf ProjectPartnersPresentation.doc Presentations made during the seminar “Civil Dialogue- a new challenge for NGOs and State Institutions”, March 14, IBIS Hotel, Bucharest
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