The participants at the conference “Development of civil dialogue and partnership relations between civil society, national governments and EU institutions” organized by the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) and CNVOS-Centre for Information Service, Co-operation and Development of NGOs, adopted the "Ljubljana declaration" which provides policy recommendations to the EU and national governments to take into account the view of the civil society when adopting decisions, to realize the principle of partnership and plan a long-term strategy of development and strengthening of the position of civil society in the European neighbourhood.
The conference was organized on April 2, 2008 in the main venue of the Slovenian Presidency Brdo pri Kranju near Ljubljana. The conference was organized under the auspices of the Slovenian Presidency and in cooperation with the Government Communication Office and the Representation of the European Commission in Slovenia in the framework of the Management Partnership.
The event was part of a process to launch a debate at EU and national levels about how to create sustainable partnership relations between civil society actors, EU and national authorities. Three international conferences are envisaged in the framework of this campaign: the Brussels conference which was held in October 2007 , the Ljubljana conference and the concluding conference which will be held in Zadar in September 2008.
The Ljubljana conference gathered civil society from EU and neighbouring countries, donors active in the region as well as officials from the EU institutions and national governments. The main objective was to enhance the role of CSOs as development actors by engaging them in a dialogue on partnership relations with their national governments and EU Institutions, as well as on aid effectiveness.
ECNL representative Katerina Hadzi-Miceva delivered a presentation on the panel addressing the following issues:
- What is the place of civil society in EU external policies towards its neighbours?
- Could the EU develop a long-term strategy for the civil society empowerment in the EU neighbouring countries?
- How far do the EU external instruments respond to the political and legal environment of the civil society development in the EU neighbourhood?
- What are the relative responsibilities of the EU in establishing this enabling environment?