Environment Forum is a project intended for all environmental non-governmental organizations (from Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244, and Turkey) interested and involved in the EU enlargement process. It aims to support NGOs in their active and constructive role in the enlargement process. The project builds on the previous NGO Dialogue and New NGO Forum which were focused on the issues of information exchange and improvement in transparency between NGOs and the Commission. One of its goals is to develop capacities of environmental NGOs to establish a constructive dialogue with national authorities.

Annual Meetings The annual meetings of the group of selected NGOs will be a central part of the project. The meetings will bring together NGO representatives, the EC experts and other stakeholders. It will create platform for information exchange on the latest development in the enlargement process, as well as provide NGOs with opportunity to formulate their concerns and discuss challenges facing individual countries and region as a whole.

Preparatory meetings, and communication between NGOs, project team and the EC will provide inputs into the agenda of the annual meetings in order to reflect as much as possible concerns and interests of the NGOs while (at the same time) discuss the most important trends and issues in the EU enlargement process. For this reason, it is essential that the greatest value is gained from the national preparatory meetings and that the NGOs take active part in the meeting aganda formulation and preparation.

Preparatory meetings represent a new component not included in the prior forum and added on the basis of feedback from NGOs. These meetings will represent a follow-up to the three annual meetings with the EC, serve as opportunities for disseminating information and will prepare the ground for the definition of the agenda of the following annual meetings.

The preparatory meetings will have to focus on reaching a broader range of national stakeholders and building a participatory approach within the Environment Forum. It is planned to have at least two such meetings in each country, following the first and second annual meetings, appropriately spaced to keep the momentum going.

The project intends to build on the results of the national consultations promoted through DG ENV funding in spring 2009 and which will be followed-up by the Regional Environmental Network for Accession (RENA) (active link to RENA page). The most appropriate tools to encourage constructive national partnerships are the preparatory meetings which will be held in each beneficiary country.

A lot of importance is given to IT tools as these have clearly proven to be effective means of exchanging information. In particular, instead of the often “dormant” Email forum the project opted for the development of an “Helpdesk” as a much more manageable and effective mean to : provide tailored information to users in a private or semi-public way maintain an internal reference suitable for further analysis to identify the topics of main concern which are not necessarily apparent or explicit in face to face consultations. provide indirect feedback to the Commission on civil society issues of concern provide important input to stimulate the debate both in the preparatory meetings and, as a consequence, in the annual meetings.

Besides the important technical aspects related to the development and application of appropriate environmental policy, the main focus of the on-going NGO-EC dialogue should also be directly connected to the EU Accession process and the relations between the EC and the candidate/potential candidate countries, both of which aspects have strong political connotations. Therefore, the dialogue facilitated by the Environment Forum initiative would be a suitable platform to seek common interests between DG ENV, DG Enlargement and the environmental NGOs. These common interests include environmental acquis, enforcement, transparency, sustainable and effective use of IPA funds, public support to EU policy and public participation in general.

Beneficiary countries Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM), Turkey and Kosovo under UNSCR 1244

Contracting Authority European Commission, Directorate General for Environment (“DG ENV”)