From the 26th to 28th September 2012, over 100 representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs), support agencies, government and EU Institutions will gather together in Zadar, Croatia to examine the state of civil society and its future development in the Western Balkans and Turkey. ECNL is participating at the conference. This event titled “Regional Civil Society Conference: for Europe of the Western Balkans and Turkey” has been jointly organised by European Citizen Action Service, the National Foundation for Civil Society Development, TACSO, the People to People Programme of the European Commission and Directorate General for Enlargement.
Creating a free, independent and dynamic civil society is now a political criterion for a country to become a member of the European Union. The European Commission has recognised this by setting up a Civil Society Facility (CSF). But this is not enough in itself to ensure that this political criterion is met.
For this reason the Balkan Civil Society Development Network is proposing a Monitoring Matrix to actually measure progress towards an enabling environment for civil society. How to evaluate something as varied and fluid as civil society and determine the results of support will be a main theme of the event. As previously reported, the Matrix Project is supported by ECNL and ICNL's Legal Innovation Fund financed by USAID and PACT.