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Editor: Tony Venables
ECAS is thankful to the Europe for citizens programme for its support.
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ECAS Annual Report
2010
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I. IntroductionOn 1 December 2009, the Lisbon Treaty entered finally into force putting to an end a period of
institutional uncertainty since the failure of the Constitutional Treaty. The new Treaty and the fact
that it makes the Charter of Fundamental Rights legally binding had a positive effect on ECAS work.
There were at least three important elements of change:
- The creation of a European Civil Society House1. This ambitious project to create first avirtual and then a physical house became ECAS no. 1 priority. A survey was launched, a
series of meetings were held and extensive briefings were
published. The European Parliament refused to add funds to
the special budget line for the house adopted in 2009. This didnot hold up the process of defining the overall objectives or
the planning of the most immediate focus of the virtual house,
becoming a one-stop shop for citizens rights. Awareness of the project and political support
increased in 2010.
- The new Commission and the post for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship.ECAS has constantly asked for such an interlocutor in the Commission. The
appointment of Viviane Reding as Vice President to this post in early 2010
led to a stronger commitment by the new Commission to European
Citizenship as shown by the 6th
report under the Treaty Progress towards
effective European Citizenship. The consultation launched and the action
plan EU Citizenship report 2010 Dismantling the obstacles to EU citizens
rights which should lead up to 2013, the proposed European year of the
citizen. ECAS provided input to this process and towards the end of 2010
organised a conference on the enforcement of European citizens rights in
which Viviane Reding participated2.
- European Citizens Initiatives. The most prescriptive aspect of participatory democracy inthe Lisbon Treaty is article 11 para. 4, which requires a regulation to implement the right of
over 1 million European citizens from a significant number of member states to present a
legislative initiative to the Commission. The consultation by the Commission and the hearings
in the European Parliament were a dominant feature throughout the year. ECAS was an
active participant, glad to see the improvements brought about by the European Parliament
1
More Info available atwww.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/171/2412More info available at http://www.ecas-
citizens.eu/component/option,com_alphacontent/section,20/cat,943/task,view/id,353/Itemid,113/
Viviane Reding.
http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/171/241http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/171/241http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/171/241http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_alphacontent/section,20/cat,943/task,view/id,353/Itemid,113/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_alphacontent/section,20/cat,943/task,view/id,353/Itemid,113/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_alphacontent/section,20/cat,943/task,view/id,353/Itemid,113/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_alphacontent/section,20/cat,943/task,view/id,353/Itemid,113/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_alphacontent/section,20/cat,943/task,view/id,353/Itemid,113/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/171/2418/4/2019 ECAS 2010 Annual Report
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who, for example, took one of its ideas that there should be a hearing with the citizens on
the initiative3.
These favourable Treaty and institutional charges have come in the context of a distinctly
unfavourable economic and political climate. Certainly the mood in the European Parliament was to
cut rather than increase budgets, so the amendment to add funds to the budget line was narrowlydefeated. More serious was the sense from the Roma affair of August September 2000, where
Viviane Reding took a strong stand on the growing tension between the fine principles of European
law and free movement, and the resistance of member states to implement EU standards correctly.
The report of the ECAS high level panel Mind the gap towards a better enforcement of
European citizens rights to free movement was more relevant than ever4. The tension
between European rights, and growing nationalism with attempts to control migration flows were
apparent in the running ofYour Europe Advice for the European Commission. The service handled
almost 12,000 questions in 20105.
In the course of the year, the ECAS Board of Directors met on 4 March, 3 September and 11November. In addition, there were a number of informal meetings with Board members to prepare
the new statutes and General Assembly. The General Assembly met on 1 July and elected a new
Board of Directors as follows:
CASTBERGER, Anders Chair Headmaster and CEO - the Educational Associationof the Sobriety Movement
Swedish
PONCELET, Andr Acting Treasurer ECAS until 11 November 2010 Belgian
VALLELY, Malachy Treasurer ECAS - after 11 November 2010 Irish
ANDREEN, Thomas Secretaryto the Board
Director of Network youth in Europe Swedish
BARABS, Miklos Director of European House in Budapest, HungaryExpertise on EU policies and NGOs in the applicant
States
Hungarian
FRASSONI, Monica Former MEP Italian
HELLAM, Mall Executive Director, Open Estonia Foundation Estonian
HERMANNS, Angelina Journalist, EU Consultant for NGOs andinternational PPPs Public Private Partnerships
German
KAVRAKOVA, Assya Director of the European Policies and CivicParticipation Program at the Open Society
Institute Sofia
Bulgarian
3More info available athttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/343/341/
4
Report available athttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_productbook/func,viewcategory/Itemid,59/catid,1/5
Report available athttp://ec.europa.eu/citizensrights/front_end/about/index_en.htm
http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/343/341/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/343/341/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/343/341/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_productbook/func,viewcategory/Itemid,59/catid,1/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_productbook/func,viewcategory/Itemid,59/catid,1/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_productbook/func,viewcategory/Itemid,59/catid,1/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_productbook/func,viewcategory/Itemid,59/catid,1/http://ec.europa.eu/citizensrights/front_end/about/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/citizensrights/front_end/about/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/citizensrights/front_end/about/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/citizensrights/front_end/about/index_en.htmhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_productbook/func,viewcategory/Itemid,59/catid,1/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/component/option,com_productbook/func,viewcategory/Itemid,59/catid,1/http://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/343/341/8/4/2019 ECAS 2010 Annual Report
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LARSEN, Lone Leth Director, Danish Cultural Foundation Danish
MEADOWS, Graham Former Director General for regional policy British
MUNOZ, Rodolphe Academic lawyer specialising in free movement
issues and a lecturer at Liege University
Belgian
PLAVA-MATI, Cvjetana Director of the National Foundation for CivilSociety Development (Croatia)
Croatian
THOGERSEN, Niels Jorgen Former Commission director of communication Danish
VON BONIN, Andreas Partner, Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer German
WOBBEN, Thomas Former President of the youth forum and head ofthe Saxony-Anhalt regional office
German
FRANCIOSI, Maria Laura Journalist with the EJCSECRETARIAT
Italian
VENABLES, Tony Director, ECAS British
The most significant development was the adoption of two new statutes, the first making the
creation of the ECSH a priority, and the second reforming the membership structure to allow not just
associations to join ECAS, but also departments in government, regional, or city authorities working
with civil society. The new articles are attached in annex 1.
2010 was an active year for ECAS, as the schedule in annex 2 of meetings we organised or
participated as a speaker in shows.
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II. Main Activities in 2010
Creation of the European Civil Society House (ECSH)
Following the first public meeting in December 2009, ECAS continued the
survey which showed strong support over 90% - for this initiative6. An
extended briefing note with the results and proposals for the activities of the
house under the 3Cs civil society, citizens rights and citizen participation
was published in May7. On 2 June 2010, Jean Lambert MEP hosted a packed
meeting in the European Parliament. The discussion underlined the open
nature of this new facility for citizens and civil society organisations alike as a
way to encourage networking and collective action. This was followed by a
public debate on the occasion of the ECAS General Assembly on 1 July where
the case respectively for and against the virtual and physical house was
put, which helped to generate a consensus on the scope and limits of both
options and showed how the two have to come together. The results were
useful for a business plan produced by Deloitte on a pro bono basis and
which developed a SWOT analysis of the two options. After the survey and
these two public meetings as well as more private ones, ECAS continued to
develop the project with further research and produced a second extended
briefing note in December 20108.
In the European Parliament, an amendment was put down by the Greens to
add 350,000 euro to the budget line. This was defeated by 12 votes to 9 in the
committee on constitutional affairs on 6 September. The following day, ECAS organised a
presentation of the mock-up of a design for the virtual house, a video and the business plan with
speakers from ZN strategy and Deloitte. A new amendment to add 100,000 euro was attempted by
became a victim of a decision by the budget committee to avoid earmarking or to name any
particular organisations in all preparatory actions. In this process cross-party political support for the
house increased rather than decreased despite the fact that MEPs considered that the project could
possibly be funded under existing resources, for example to set up a help desk on citizens initiatives,
rather than by adding funds to a budget line, which will now simply remain awaiting further
developments. By the end of the year, the steering group for ECSH were fine-tuning the strategy with
a view to starting on the second C citizens rights with a virtual one-stop shop covering access to
6Survey available athttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s/europeancivilsocietyhouse
7Briefing note available athttp://www.ecas-
citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=651&Itemid=8Extended briefing note available athttp://www.ecas-
citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=767&Itemid=
Briefing notes no.1 and2 on the ESCH.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/europeancivilsocietyhousehttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s/europeancivilsocietyhousehttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s/europeancivilsocietyhousehttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=651&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=651&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=651&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=651&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=767&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=767&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=767&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=767&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=767&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=767&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=651&Itemidhttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=651&Itemidhttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s/europeancivilsocietyhouse8/4/2019 ECAS 2010 Annual Report
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Funding guide 2010.
documents, complaints to the European Commission, petitions to the European Parliament, requests
to the European ombudsman and citizens initiatives. It was thanks to a project under the Europe for
citizens programme and support by the Rowntree Charitable Trust that we were able to make
further substantial progress in 20109.
Although pioneering the Civil Society House creation took up a significant proportion of ECAS time, italso attracted increased input from volunteers and students so that there was no let-up in other
ECAS activities, which are summarised below.
C1 Civil society
The European funding guide for NGOs was published and offered as part of
the package for membership. As a result membership did increase,
particularly at the basic level of Friend of ECAS. This involves an annualsubscription of 50 euro in exchange for a copy of the guide and monthly
updates of calls for proposals, alerts to consultations and an extensive
briefing on EU development. Examples of more in-depth work and
cooperation with other organisations included:
- Organisations of a study visit for beneficiaries of the VisionariesProject to the EU Institutions on behalf of the Rowntree Charitable
Trust10
;
- An analysis of European Strategy and access to funds for a European association, Eurocares;- A study visit for civil society organisations from Macedonia.
In the last annual report, we reported on a conference held in Zadar in October 2009 to assess the
implementation of the Ljubljana declaration and which approved a package of guidelines11
. The idea
of a Croatian CSO office in Brussels was re-launched. This objective was fulfilled in 2010, when ECAS
and the Civil Society Development Foundation signed an agreement to set up the IMPACT office run
by Kenan Hadzimusic.
ECAS also followed up the earlier work done in 2008 on describing framework
agreements (or compacts) between public authorities and civil society
organisations.12
The research covered 12 countries or regions. Towards the
end of 2010, the comparative analysis was up-dated in cooperation with
members of the European network of national associations (ENNA). However,
the debate on participatory democracy in the EU Institutions was limited to
the adoption of the regulation on citizens initiatives the 1 million signatures
so other aspects such as civil dialogue were put to one side. There were no
9More Info available atwww.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/171/241
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12Report available athttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/173/240/
Compacts update.
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new developments at European level.
On the other hand, there was a much clearer sense of progress towards strengthening the
partnership principle to include civil society organisations in EU Cohesion policy. DG Regional Policy
began an informal dialogue process with NGOs and local authorities in which ECAS was a participant
(see list of meetings). On 7 October, ECAS organised its civil society forum duringthe open days for regions and cities when over 6000 delegates came to
Brussels13
. For the 2010 forum, ECAS up-dated an earlier working paper and
proposed a number of recommendations. The forum brought together
presentations by the Economic and Social Committee (Rapporteur Jan Olson)
which had assembled examples of best practice in partnership and produced detailed
recommendations. There was also a presentation of more extensive evaluation by the IQnet which is
led by a group of researchers and brings together managing authorities. Hopefully this work will
influence the strengthening of partnership in the regulation for the new financial perspectives 2013-
2020.
C2 Citizens Rights
A dominant feature in 2010 was the expansion of the numbers of questions handled by Your
Europe Advice (YEA) to 12000 as well as the increase in their quality and
excellent results of the work of the team of legal experts, which is 60-
strong, in answering questions in all official languages. The entry into force of theLisbon Treaty and the communications presented on citizenship and the single
market act at the same time helped to clarify further the role of YEA and its
relationship with other European networks, as part of a one-stop shop. The YEA
database provides ECAS with a unique knowledge of how Europe works for the citizen and where the
most significant barriers to free movement lie14
.
Against this background, ECAS published the final report of the high-level panel
Towards a better enforcement of European citizens rights to free
movement. At a press briefing held on 19 January at EurActiv, Professor Sir
David Edward, former judge of the European Court of Justice, recommended
the report as readable and practical15
. The report was taken up in the
Institutions and ECAS was invited to discuss the 10 recommendations with
officials from DGs Justice and Internal Market. It became part of the response
by ECAS to the Commissions consultation on the 6th
report on Citizenship of
13More Info available athttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/346/345/
14
More Info available athttp://ec.europa.eu/citizensrights/front_end/about/index_en.htm15Report available athttp://www.ecas-
citizens.eu/component/option,com_productbook/func,viewcategory/Itemid,59/catid,1/
Mind the gap report.
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the Union and the conference organised by Viviane Reding on 1-2 July. On 3 November, there was a
further follow-up in the conference Mind the gap (between European law and its enforcement)
which was attended by about 100 representatives of different EU Institutions, information and
advice services as well as local associations dealing with intra-EU migration16
. The issue of the Roma
which had erupted over the summer was a dominant feature17
. The lessons learned from this case
led ECAS to plan a further follow up with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to study the scope for
accelerated action by the Commission when there is a flagrant breach of free movement provisions
by member states.
ECAS has always been an advocate of a closer sense of cooperation and partnership between
European level information and advice services and national citizens advice services, where about
10% of millions of questions and complaints have a European dimension. It was suggested at the
conference on 3 November that the Economic and Social Committee might do a scoping study to see
where advice on European rights is available, where there are serious gaps and where more synergyis possible. The conference was the conclusion of an exchange programme among staff and
volunteers dealing with intra-EU migration flows between countries of origin and host country (i.e.
Romania, Italy, Spain, Poland, N. Ireland and England). Called Flowchart, this project was classified as
a mentoring and training programme for advisors to find out more about the origins or destinations
of the European citizens they advise. It was scheduled to end in early 2011 with the adoption of a
charter.
C3 Citizen Participation
In the last annual report, an original project was described where citizens themselves were asked to
give their recommendations on how experiments with participatory
deliberations such as citizens juries, consultations or town hall meetings
would be organised and above all followed up. Following recommendations
by randomly selected and representative panels of citizens which met in four
countries in 200918
, a final European event was held on 26 February in
Brussels. The closing event recommended the creation of a cross-sectoralclearing house which should act as a focal point for citizens and the EU
institutions alike on the design and follow up to participatory processes,
according to ground rules for methodology and a checklist. The conference
led to a joint publication by ECAS and partners How the participatory
16More Info available athttp://www.ecas-
citizens.eu/component/option,com_alphacontent/section,20/cat,943/task,view/id,353/Itemid,113/17
More Info available athttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/358/280/18More Info available athttp://www.ecas-
citizens.eu/component/option,com_alphacontent/section,20/cat,943/task,view/id,292/Itemid,113/
How the participatorydemocracy toolboxcan make theEuropean Union lessremote from citizens.
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democracy toolbox can make the European Union less remote from citizens19. Despite plan
D under the last Commission and an extensive evaluation of participatory projects, there is still little
sign that the new Commission will follow such recommendations and create a citizens pillar in policy
making despite the provision of Article 11 of the Lisbon Treaty.
As stressed in the introduction to this report, the Article 11 agenda was dominated by the single
issue of citizens initiatives. ECAS responded to the consultation launched by the Commission in its
green paper and was an active participant in the hearings and in commenting to journalists. In the
European Parliament, more political priority was given to the draft regulation and most of the
political groups held hearings in which ECAS was again an active participant. The European
Parliament made a number of improvements to the Commissions dra ft, which did become more
use-friendly. ECAS earlier idea that there should be a hearing between the organisers of citizens
initiatives and the Commission and European Parliament was taken up in the final regulation. A sticky
point however was the insistence by a majority of member states that citizens should give their IDnumber when signing an initiative despite a survey by ECAS which suggested that two thirds of
people would be reluctant to do so, for data protection reasons20
.
Throughout the year, ECAS invested a significant amount of time and energy in following all stages of
the legislative process as part of the process of creating a help-desk under the European Civil Society
House project. At the end of 2010, plans were made to hold the first European event on the new
regulation in Mid-March of 201121
.
19
More infohttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/331/20More Info available athttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/344/342/
21More Info available athttp://www.ecas-citizens.eu/content/view/372/360/
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Annex 1
Amendments to the ECAS Statutes from the Board of Directors
Aims of ECAS
These are described in article 4 of the attached statutes.
Amendment no. 1
Add the following to Article 4
In pursuit of these objectives, ECAS should create a European civil society house.
Comments: The Board considers that this has become a significant priority in the ECAS 3-year
strategy and should therefore be included in the statutes.
Membership
Amendment no. 2
Replace article 6 by the following:
Members of ECAS should be non-profit making civil society organizations. If a member is a public or
semi-public authority, it must show support for the objectives of the association and a commitment
to civil society development. Membership of ECAS excludes the pursuit of commercial interests.
Members of ECAS can represent any geographical level local, regional, national, European or
international. Members can be natural or legal persons.
Comments: This would endorse membership to include public or semi-public authorities or rather
more likely specific departments of the city, regional or governments working in partnership with
CSOs. Broadening the membership base is comparable with Belgian law on AISBL (ref..)
Amendment no. 3
ECAS has the following categories of membership:
oFriends of ECAS have 1 vote in the general Assembly (and pay an annual contribution of 50euro). They receive a free copy of the annual funding guide and the monthly newsletter
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o Associate members have 2 votes in the general Assembly (and pay an annual contribution of250 euro). They are entitled, in addition to the services of ordinary members, to occasional
individual advice and support from ECAS.
o Full members have 5 votes in the general Assembly (and pay an annual contribution of 1000euro). They receive the services above and also are engaged more intensely in one or otherof ECAS activities and require advice and support
o Partner members have 10 votes in the general Assembly (and pay an annual contribution of5000 euro). This special category corresponds to taking a recognized lead in an ECAS
strategic activity.
Comments: Following the review of ECAS in 2009, the Board of Directors proposes a radical change in
membership structure. Friends of ECASnow have voting rights. They also receive an attractive,
simple offer, - get the ECAS funding guide plus monthly update of EU calls for proposals, consultation
meetings etc. For associate members, there is no change but the contribution for full members comesdown from 1500 to 1000 euro. Partner membership is a new idea, corresponding to an organization
taking the lead in a particular activity of the ECAS 12 point 3-year strategy, or acting as a national
relay point. The organisation signs a partnership agreement providing advantages in terms of
recognition and exposure, European links and delivery of results attributed to their input. The Board
of Directors decides on the level of annual contributions and the services attached to each category of
membership (see annex)
Board of Directors
Amendment no. 4
Replace the first two paragraphs of Article 15 as follows: The Association is administered by a Board
of Directors comprising a minimum of 9 members. If the number becomes too high for all members
to meet regularly, specific tasks may; be delegated to a Bureau. The composition of the Board should
represent a reasonable balance across member countries of the European Union and the activities of
the association.
Comments: The present minimum is 12 which the Board considers too high. Following a one-third of
member states rule is a reasonable minimum but there is no proposal to put a maximum ceiling on
the number of Board members. However, if the Board becomes too big to meet regularly, a smaller
Bureau should be created. The Board should represent a reasonable geographical balance and a
reasonable balance among ECAS activities. The former article which the Board considered too
prescriptive has been made more general and therefore flexible.
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Annex 2
Meetings and Events in 2010
12 January Active citizenship network hosted by DG Education and Culture
19 January Press briefing at Euractiv on the report of the high level panel Towards
better enforcement of European citizens rights to free movement
27 January Statement by ECAS to the hearing of the Petitions Committee on citizens
initiatives
3 February Visit from the King Oustav V Foundation in Sweden
11 February Study visit of NGOs from Ukraine at ECAS
26 February Final European conference of the citizens panels on How the participatory
democracy toolbox can make the EU less remote
from citizens
2-3 March Annual training session for legal experts of YEA (Your Europe Advice)
4 March ECAS Board of Directors meeting
12 March Visit to London and participation in a meeting of ENNA (European network of
national associations)
17 March Heinrich Bll Tea briefing 15 years after Dayton: what future for Bosnia and
Herzegovina?
18 March Presentation of the results of the IKV-ECAS hotline on EU visa requirements
for Turkey in Ankara
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24 March Visits to the Danish Board of Technology and the Real Dania Foundation in
Copenhagen
29 April Steering group meeting for the civil society house
30 April Informal dialogue meeting with NGOs organised by DG Regional policy
3 May Participation in EESC study group for the report by Jan Olson on the
implementation of the partnership principle in EU cohesion policy
8-9 May Participation in a conference on European citizenship for student leaders
organised by DG Communication in Istanbul
12 May TACSO EU Steering Group meeting in Zadar, Croatia
19 May EESC 3rd
Western Balkans Civil Society Forum
20 May BCSDN Workshop on Civil Dialogue in Western Balkans
26 May Talk to students at Bocconi university, Milan
26 May Meeting with commune St. Gilles on European affairs
27 May Steering group for ECSH
31 May Participation in EFC general Assembly and organisation for Rowntree
Charitable Trust of the seminar with Visionaries
1-3 June TAIEX Seminar in Belgrade, Serbia
2 June Meeting in the European Parliament hosted by Jean Lambert MEP on ECSH
9 June Presentation of ECSH to the civil society contact group
9 June Meeting with Staffan Nilsson President of Group III in the EESC
16 June Informal meeting with DG Justice on the follow-up to the hotline on visas
from Turkey
22 June Active citizenship conference organised by EACEA
28 June Participation in a meeting with a delegation from China at the EFC
1 July ECAS general Assembly and debate on the European civil society house
1-2 July Participation in Commission seminar on European citizenship
5-6 July Participation in a conference in Budapest meeting with foreign ministry and
NIOK
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12 July Briefing for journalists on the citizens initiatives organised by the European
journalism centre
14 July Meeting with Gerald Hfner MEP
16 July Meeting with EACEA financial mechanism staff in Brussels
2 August Steering group for ECSH
1-2 September Visit to Strasbourg and presentation of progress with ECSH to a meeting of
MEPs
7 September Board of Directors meeting
17 September Visit to Paris (VISTI & Toute lEurope)
21-22 September Visit to Strasbourg and meetings with MEPs on ECSH budget amendments
30 September TASCO EU Steering group meeting in Brussels
6 October Civil society forum on the partnership principle during the Open days for
regions and citizens
8-9 October Training on EU fundraising in Amersfoort, The Netherlands
14 October Presentation of the Visa hotline report in Brussels
17-18 October Presentation to social economy forum organised by the Barker foundation in
Poznan
22-23 October Meeting with Roma Kriss in Bucharest
3 November ECAS conference on Mind the gap report
8 November Steering group meeting for ECSH
11 November ECAS Board of Directors meeting
16 November Meeting with visiting CSOs from Serbia
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17 November ECAS seminar in partnership with the Wielkopolska
region on Migration and Cohesion in Brussels
17-18 November Europe for citizens conference in Berlin
18 November Meeting with visiting CSOs from Pula, Croatia
19 November Presentation on European citizenship at workshop of the European Union
democracy observatory in Brussels
22 November Steering group for ECSH
24 November Informal round table with representatives of civil society and local authorities
on the 5th Cohesion report organised by DG Regional policy
25-26 November Visa-free coalition building meeting hosted by the Stefan Batory Foundation
in Warsaw
3 December Participation in a training session for trade unionists on the European
citizens initiatives
6 December Conference on the Europe for Citizens programme (Croatia)
6-8 December Europe for citizens: first three years in Croatia, Opatija, Croatia
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