The Civil Society Development Foundation, Romania organized an international conference on public participation. The event, "The future of the NGO Sector in Romania - Public policies for partnership development between NGOs and public authorities" was organized in Bucharest on October 8, 2008.
According to civil society experts, there are about 7000 active NGOs currently in Romania. At the same time it is generally acknowledged that most of NGOs are implementing activities of public interest, complementary to those implemented by the state institutions. The amount allocated by the state through the public funds is less than 5% of the total financial resources of the NGO sector, and smaller than most of the European Union countries. Without a legislative framework and favorable public policies supported by the central state institutions, and above all by the Government, all NGOs have many times severe great difficulties to develop and expand their services.
The aim of the conference was to support all relevant stakeholders, the principle of subsidiarity in the provision of social services as well as the involvement and participation of NGO sector in the elaboration of national public policies. The conference, reuniting international experts, representatives of civil society, public institutions and political parties, aimed to foster an ongoing discussion on the elaboration of a national public policy for the support of the Romanian non-governmental sector. Ms. Nilda Bullain, on behalf of ECNL attended the event and spoke on the topic of “Dialogue Instruments between Civil Society and Political Medium and Governmental Decision-Makers”.