Domov | DOCPIE | EVENT IN LJUBLJANA

EVENT IN LJUBLJANA

 Event report 
On Thursday September 24 2015 Association for rural development LAZ had in frame of project Democratic ownership and civic participation in Europe organized  event No. 4, with the title »Civil society open university«. Project is Co-founded by European Union through the Europe for Citizens programme.The event held on four activities: international conference, gathering opinions and promote the rights of citizens on NGO’s fair LUPA, workshop training for applications on calls for Europe for Citizens program and international evening.

HERE you can find the agenda of the event. 

On the links below you can find the presentations of speakers: 
Nataša Šip: Decision-making in the EU and the role of European Commission among the citizens 
Simon Delakorda: Methods of democratic involvment in EU affairs
Endre Belassa: Insights on European topics gained through projects
Gregor Stamejčič: Self - organized districs and local communities in Maribor 
Antonio Davidkovski: Activation of young people 
Bela Z. Gergely: Sustainable and viable network of towns


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
On International conference with the title Civic participation in EU at a time of distrust they were presented the possibilities of democratic participation and search for effective methods and ways to promote citizen involvement in decision-making processes at the level of the European Union. Quite a few listeners were attracted by the theme of the conference. Opening remark was made by the president of Association LAZ Gabrijela Babič and Mayor of the city of Ljubljana Zoran Janković, who highlight the importance of people activation with project such as DOCPIE, especially in today’s time, when Europe is facing a large refugee crisis and our solidarity and values are at the test.  

Nataša Šip, European Commission representation in Slovenia, has presented the work of European institutions and decision-making processes. She pointed out new European commission work strategy, which based on the fact that more EU commissioners work is carried out on terrain.


Simon Delakorda from INEPA stressed that EU citizens have available different mechanisms of democratic influence. Experience with the mechanism of the European citizens' initiative shows us that the success of democratic processes depends on the citizen’s confidences, which are established whit proper dissemination, transparency, inclusion and efficiency of procedures.
Tina Michieli highlighted the coherence of all levels, because the EU is not something external and something that’s going on only in Brussels. She also stressed out that European policy is implemented on national level, that’s how the citizens can enter in dialogue with decision-makers on all levels, that the European policy-making is important for cooperation with national ministries and that we most expected response if we invest our energy and forwarding our vision of organization in a certain area.
Project DOCPIE partners does also presented their methods for increasing the democratic participation of citizens and they prepared some examples of good practices from their countries.
Gregor Stamejčič and Lucija Govedič from Initiative city assembly Maribor were at the end of the conference presented methods for moderation and keeping the debate about trust, inclusion and solidarity within the EU and among European citizens. Participants have also put that in practice.

 WORKSHOP
Successfully implemented and well attended was the afternoon workshop »Workshop for application on calls for Europe for Citizens programme” where participants were learned about the possibilities of financing projects within the EU funds, in particular Europe for Citizens programme and successful project under strand 2 Democratic engagement and civic participation. Participant were learned several methods for promoting democratic participation of citizens, preparation of project with innovative methods and approaches for building international partnerships.  

LUPA FAIR
On Prešern square in Ljubljana within the LUPA fair there was DOCPIE both, where the representatives of Association LAZ gathered opinions about civic participation at EU level. They encourage citizens to be active and aware of the rights which they have as members of EU. During the festival, high school students debate pro and contra on stage.

INTERNATIONAL EVENING
The whole day event ended with an international evening, where project partners were exposed to each other tradition, diversity and richness of the cultural and linguistic environment in Europe.They were learned about Slovenian culture through cousin, dance and singing and on the other hand they were also presented their countries. 

On this occasion the booklet was prepared - Dissemination booklet