Central and Eastern Europe Civil Society Forum 2016 Bucharest, 25 November 2016

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1 Central and Eastern Europe Civil Society Forum 2016 Bucharest, 25 November 2016 The Central and Eastern Europe Civil Society Forum aims to contribute to continuing and renewing a tradition of cooperation and joint action of civil society organizations in Central and Eastern Europe and to bring fresh ideas and energy from the region to the wider Europe, to mobilize civil society in the EU and the EEA towards common advocacy objectives. The ambition of the 2016 Forum is to help strengthen democracy and protect essential values on which European peace and prosperity have been built: respect for human dignity, for diversity and inclusion. The previous edition of the Forum took place in November 2014 in Bucharest, Romania. Over 250 participants from 18 countries attended the sessions of the two- day event, including a high number of civil society leaders together with representatives of the EU institutions, the FRA and the Council of Europe. The 2016 edition of the Central and Eastern Europe Civil Society Forum will focus on exploring the role of civil society in the new European political landscape dominated by the refugee crisis, the rise of populism, spreading democratic backsliding and erosion of the liberal democracy and support for the European project. The Forum will discuss the various challenges, explore trends and seek how civil society can take greater responsibility and play a more significant role in the current context. The main function of this year s Forum is to consult with like-minded civil society organisations on the ideas of coordinated actions to support democracy in Europe. Some representatives of government, international institutions and donors will also be invited to share views. Several possible ideas which will be discussed include joint civic mobilization campaigns, multi-stakeholder dialogues on democracy at local and national level in countries across Europe, advocacy for coordinated response by political decision makers to democracy fragilization and for an increased role for civil society in the existing institutional mechanisms on rule of law and Democracy at EU level.

2 Programme Venue: Marshal Garden Hotel, Calea Dorobantilor 50B Plenary session Setting the stage: Is democracy in danger in Europe? What role for civil society? Moderator: Ionuţ Sibian, Executive Director of Civil Society Development Foundation Guest speakers: Dacian Cioloş, Prime Minister of Romania (tbc) Yves Leterme, Secretary-General of International IDEA Luca Jahier, President of the Various Interests' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee Q&A Coffee break and networking Parallel workshops 1. Multi-stakeholder dialogues on democracy The workshop will introduce and discuss citizen-led democracy dialogues inspired by the International IDEA methodology, including concrete case studies and lessons learnt. The discussion will focus on the relevance and feasibility of this approach in the new political context in Europe. Facilitator: Karen Fogg, Board member of the Civil Society Development Foundation (Romania/UK) Opening presentation: Adina Trunk, Programme Officer on Democracy Assessment at International IDEA (Sweden) Koos Steenbergen, Policy Officer at the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (Netherlands) Urmo Kübar, Civil society adviser to the Presidency of Estonia (Estonia) Hanna Szulczewska, Plenipotentiary Member for international relations of the Board of Directors of the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (Poland)

3 2. Political participation and representation. What role for civil society? The workshop will focus on the crisis of political participation and representation. The discussions will explore the capacity and role of civil society in rebuilding trust in political institutions, in assisting reform of political parties and in promoting participation of citizens in democratic decision making (including through new forms of collective deliberation and action). Facilitator: Gabriel Badescu, Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy (Romania) Anna Rurka, President of the Conference of INGO of the Council of Europe (France) (video message) Stijn van Kessel, Lecturer in Politics at Loughborough University (UK/Netherlands) Miguel Ongil Lopez, Member of the Parliament of the Community of Madrid/Podemos (Spain) Victor Negrescu, Member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (Romania) Dr. Rainer Adam, Head of the Regional Office for East and Southeast Europe at Friedrich Naumann Stiftung (Germany) Cristian Chiscop, Programme Coordinator at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Romania (Romania) 3. Countering populism: lessons learnt The workshop will introduce successful experiences in countering populism in Europe, including through NGO Fund supported initiatives to encourage citizen critical thinking and media literacy. The discussion will assess best ways to transfer and reinforce such experience across Europe, including through joint action. Facilitator: Elena Calistru, Chair & Co-founder at Funky Citizens (Romania) Opening presentation: Vedat Sevincer, Project Manager at NorSensus Mediaforum (Norway) Mihaela Danga, Deputy Director at the Center for Independent Journalism (Romania) Pavlina Capkovicová, Analyst at Demagog.sk (Slovakia) Zdeněk Jirsa, Fundraiser & Project Coordinator at Demagog.cz (Czech Republic) Krzysztof Izdebski, Policy Director at epaństwo Foundation (Poland)

4 4. What can the EU do to support democracy in Member states? What is the role of civil society? The workshop will review current institutional attempts to support democracy and rule of law in Europe (e.g. the Rule of Law Framework of the European Commission, the Rule of Law Dialogue of the EU Council, the role of the Fundamental Rights Agency etc.) The discussions will focus on the place and role of civil society in relation to such institutional mechanisms. Facilitator: Laura Ştefan, Programme Coordinator at Expert Forum (Romania) Ulrike Lunacek, Vice-President of the European Parliament (Austria) (video message) Israel Butler, Independent analyst on human rights and EU affairs at the European Liberties Platform (UK) Katarzyna Mortoń, International coordinator at the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (Poland) Vera Mora, Director of Ökotárs Foundation (Hungary) Lunch and networking Parallel workshops 5. How can citizen mobilisation work? The workshop will introduce examples of citizen mobilisation at local and national level, with case studies from Iceland and Estonia. The discussions will examine the keys for success, the methods, the context, the lasting impact. They will look in particular at possible relevance for much larger countries and assess how they might be applicable elsewhere, more generally, to support democracy and counter disenchantment with mainstream politics. Facilitator: Nicoleta Chirita, Project Coordinator at Resource Center for Public Participation (Romania) Gústav Bergmann Sigurbjörnsson, Member of the Association for Sustainability and Democracy (Iceland) Urmo Kübar, Civil society adviser to the President of Estonia (Estonia) Ivan Novosel, Director of Programs at Human Rights House (Croatia) Hanna Szulczewska, Plenipotentiary Member for international relations of the Board of Directors of the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (Poland) Kristine Zonberga, Acting Director of Latvian Civic Alliance (Latvia) Krzysztof Izdebski, Policy Director at epaństwo Foundation (Poland) Imants Breidaks, CEO of ManaBalss.lv (Latvia)

5 6. What support for civil society initiatives on democracy in Europe? The workshop will examine the possible sources of support - financial, political, organisational - for civil society initiatives, looking on the one hand at the role of donors and possible sources of grant aid and on the other hand at the role of EU level civil society platforms and pro-democracy organisations. The discussions will consider ways in which joint action can assist civil society in responding to the fragilisation of democracy at national level. Facilitator: Luben Panov, Program Consultant at the European Center for Not-for-profit Law (Bulgaria) Opening presentation: and Human Rights (UK) Julie Broome, Director of Ariadne - European Funders for Social Change Antonella Valmorbida, Secretary General of the European Association for Local Democracy (France/Italy) Assya Kavrakova, Director of the European Citizen Action Service (Belgium) Ilina Nesijk, Programme and Communication Manager at Balkan Civil Society Development Network (Macedonia) Carlotta Besozzi, Coordinator of Civil Society Europe (Belgium) Katarzyna Mortoń, International coordinator at the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (Poland) Israel Butler, Independent analyst on human rights and EU affairs at the European Liberties Platform (UK) Denisa Ionescu, Secretary General of the European Network of National Civil Society Associations (Belgium) 7. Campaigning together: what lessons learnt from countering hate speech in Europe? The workshop will focus on the lessons learnt, from the point of view of cross-national campaigning, during the No Hate campaign. Successful initiatives in citizen mobilisation will be highlighted (especially those supported by EEA & Norway Grants). Discussions will explore effective forms of coordination among civil society organisations and on instruments for successful joint campaigning. Facilitator: Carmen Marcu, Adviser Secretary of State at the Ministry of Youth and Sports (Romania) Csaba Asztalos, President of the National Council for Combating Discrimination (Romania) Marius Jitea, Member of the No Hate Speech Campaign European Team & Project officer in the Education and Training Division Youth Department, DG II DEMOCRACY Directorate of Democratic Citizenship and Participation, Council of Europe (Belgium) Irina Drexler, National campaign coordinator of the No Hate Speech Movement Romania (Romania)

6 Miriam Ekiudoko, President of Ebony African Cultural, Arts and Human Rights Organization (Hungary) Karolina Hansen, Postdoctorate Associate at the Center for Research on Prejudice of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw (Poland) Ana-Maria Stancu, President of E-Civis Association (Romania) Ján Orlovský, Executive Director of the Open Society Foundation Slovakia (Slovakia) 8. How can civil society use the opportunity of EU presidencies? The workshop will bring together stakeholders from the countries which will hold the EU Presidency up until the end of Discussions will focus on the priorities of these presidencies, forms of coordination and cooperation. Special attention will be given to initiatives to support democracy. Facilitator: Ionuţ Sibian, Executive Director at Civil Society Development Foundation (Romania) Presentations: Milan Andrejkovic, Office of the Plenipotentiary for Development of the Civil Society of the Slovak Government (Slovakia) Bogdan Deleanu, Director of Europuls (Belgium/Romania) Jõgeva Maris, Executive Director of the Network of Estonian Non-profit Organizations (Estonia) Elina Mikola, Advocacy Officer at KEHYS - The Finnish NGDO Platform to the EU (Finland) Marin Lessenski, Program Director at EuPI/European Policies Initiative of the Open Society Institute Sofia (Bulgaria) Plenary session Reports from workshops and recommendation. Debate on next steps. Closing addresses: Violeta Alexandru, Minister of Public Consultation and Civic Dialogue (Romania) H.E. Astrid E. Helle, Permanent Representative of Norway to the Council of Europe (Norway) The overall objective of the NGO Fund is to strengthen civil society development and increase its contribution to social justice, democracy and sustainable development. Thus, NGO Fund contributes to the overall objectives of European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement to reduce economic and social in the European Economic Area and to strengthen bilateral relations between 16 beneficiary states and the donor states Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway

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