News

What are the experiences of European and local civil society organizations with the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)? What are the challenges encountered when impementing EIDHR projects? And what do the legislative proposals for the financing instruments of external action for the new multi-annual framework 2014 - 2020 look like? These were some of the questions discussed in the course of the second edition of the EIDHR Forum. Around 250 representatives from European and local partner civil society organizations as well as representatives from the EU institutions joined the discussion. The ENoP Asbl sent representatives from Brussels based organisations and Deborah Barron, National Director of the Legal Resources Foundation, Zimbabwe.

The Hanns Seidel Foundation organises on 10 May the converence "Myanmar's Democratic Path and its International Integration"
Key note speech by
Hon. Thura U Shwe Mann
President of the Myanmar Parliament (Pyithu Hluttaw / House of Representatives of Myanmar).
Followed by panel discussion with
Hon. Thura U Shwe Mann
President of the Pyithu Hluttaw/ House of Representatives of Myanmar
Seamus Gillespie
Head of Division South-East Asia, European External Action Service.
The conference will take place from 12:00 until 14:00 at the Representation of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rue Montoyer 47, 1000 Brussels.

Beginning of May the ENoP Asbl will establish its office in new premises. After the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung now the Heinrich Boell Stiftung hosts the secretariat:

14 rue d´Arlon
1050 Brussels
tel. 0032 - 2-23 000 29

The ENoP Member, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and NATO co host the Conference

" The implementation of UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East"
at Residence Palace, Thursday, 29th of March 2012.

The ENoP public conference: ‘An agenda for change: Increasing the impact of EU development policy’, gathered about 70 participants, representing the European Parliament, European Commission, the EEAS, platforms, political foundations, NGOs, civil society.

The event, hosted by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, was attended by high-level speakers coming from different countries within and outside the EU. The panellists, having diverse backgrounds and experience enriched the discussions and contributed to a wider and in-depth examination of the topic.

Please, find the full-length article below.

With his “Agenda for Change” COM 2011 (637), the EU Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs has presented a new strategic document that will guide the EU development policy in the years to come. It seeks to achieve more coherence amongst EU policies in order to foster development in its external relations. But it also places a new and laudable emphasis on human rights, democracy and other key elements of good governance. Although the new approach comes timely and sets the right framework, its impact very much depends on its implementation. How will the challenges regarding its objective be addressed, in order to achieve better policy coherence?

Six speakers and one expert panel will reflect on the topic during the conference on 27 February. Please find the agenda and the speaker´s biography list for downloading.

The joint ENoP- SOLIDAR event ‘Making the system work: Ensuring decent work and quality jobs in the Western Balkans’ took place on 22.02.2012 in the EP, Brussels and was hosted by MEP Marije Cornelissen. Katya Koleva provided the introductory notes of the meeting on behalf of ENoP. She is the chair of the ISI (Institute for Social Integration), Bulgaria and member of the ENoP Steering Committee.  

The roundtable gathered representatives form the five Western Balkan countries (Serbia, FYROM, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina), coming form trade unions, think-tanks and NGOs together with representatives from DG Enlargement/EC and European employer platforms.

The meeting started with brief reports, focusing on the current economic situation in the Western Balkan countries and its reflection on labour market and employment. The extracts from the reports showed that the average unemployment rate for the region is between 20-30% and has both age and gender dimensions. Due to the high unemployment rate, the rapporteurs identified the appearance of a new phenomenon called ‘voluntarily slavery’ which forces qualified employees to accept poor job opportunities, while employers speculate with remunerations.  

Among the vital problems identified as preconditions for unemployment and scarcity of decent job opportunities, were the financial turmoil, lack of harmonisation with EU standards, lack of labour inspection. All these shortcomings were determined as consequences by the poor implementation of the rule of law and existing legislation.

Within the fruitful discussions the participants managed to identify several measures needed to overcome some outstanding problems in striving for decent work and quality jobs. They stressed the necessity to have more capacity building for providing a sound administrative potential; encourage social dialogue, amend labour legislation within the trade unions, have a common EU approach. Last, but not least the participants outlined the crucial role and voice of civil society by quoting the liberal Roger Baldwin: ''Silence never won rights. They are not handed down from above; they are forced by the pressures from below.''

ENoP in a joint event with SOLIDAR will address the problems of ensuring decent work & quality jobs in the countries of the Western Balkan region. The discussion, focusing on the challenges and obstacles Western Balkan countries face in providing appropriate job opportunities, will take place on 22^nd February 2012, 12:00 – 14:00 at the European Parliament, ASP 5 G 315.

The opening remarks will be provided by Ms Katya Koleva, chair of the Institute for Social Integration, one of ENoP’s Bulgarian member-organizations. The event will examine the economic and social conditions in the Western Balkans leading to a precarious position of workers vis-à-vis employers across different sectors in the region, also in relation to the financial turmoil. The participants, representing viewpoints and positions of the European Commission, EU officials, actors in the field and civil society organizations, will discuss the current economic and situation in the Western Balkans in attempt to identify the weaknesses in the enforcement-monitoring mechanisms that need to be addressed. The roundtable will be open to attendees, registered for the event. Please, refer to the draft agenda in the attachment.

E-learning activities in communication platforms and simulation games will be part of the second PRINCE project, implemented by ENoP members. Representatives from the seven involved ENoP member organisations attended the inception workshop from 1-3 February in Brussels. The organisations who will implement the project come from Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia and the Netherlands. They are affiliated to 4 party families. The title of the project is: “Get on board! Mobilizing young leaders to support the EU enlargement process towards the Western Balkans.” Its concept will build upon the results of the first ENoP PRINCE project “The EU-Enlargement process: Open your mind and get involved!”, which was implemented in 2011.

The PRINCE programme is a financial aid instrument designed to provide assistance to implement the information and communication strategy for the European Union. The focus is on enlargement issues, targeting mainly the general public in EU member states.

Related to the Declaration on the Establishment of a European Endowment for Democracy (EED) from 20 December 2011 ENoP organized an exchange meeting in the premises of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. 36 representatives from the EEAS, EP, EC, member states, CSOs in the field and Political Foundations from Europe met on 24 January for a 2-hour exchange. The session was chaired by Mr Anne de Boer, the ENoP network coordinator. The speakers and participants focussed on questions related to the concept of the future fund: its structure, operational potential and complementarity in the context to the existing instruments.