The “Civil Society and Solidarity in Times of Crisis” Debate

On Tuesday, June 17, 2014 the JoiEU partner NACAB (Asociația Națională a Birourilor de Consiliere pentru Cetățeni – National Association of Citizen Advice Bureaux), Romania organized this month’s debate on  “Civil Society and Solidarity in Times of Crisis”. Besides the participants from Romania and  other EU member states on the spot in Bucharest, the trans-border part of the debate included online interventions from  Active Citizenship Network Italy, Partners Albania, ECAS Belgium and the NGO Support Centre Cyprus. The main topics discussed were:

• What lessons can the civil society draw from the solidarity movements that emerged in EU Members States in the last four years?
• What effects does the “new European order” have for the civil society and how can the citizens, the media and the nongovernmental organizations address them?

The Bucharest conference was focused on the idea of solidarity of the European civil society. In this direction, the interventions of the speakers from the partner organizations, Active Citizenship Network (Italy), Partners Albania (Albania), NGOs Support Centre (Cyprus) and the European Citizen Action Service (Belgium), tackled both the challenges posed by the economic and political crisis in different Member States, and the efforts undertaken by the civil society organizations in response to these challenges. The interventions of the Romanian speakers outlined an overview of the Romanian civil society solidarity in addressing the political crisis in the country in recent years. In this respect, the presentations held by Florina Presada (The Resource Centre for Public Participation) and Oana Popescu (Global Focus) underlined the emergence of a new civil society and marked both the context of its occurrence, and the problems it encounters, while Oana Balutescu (Point Europe for Citizens in Romania) stressed the solidarity initiatives funding opportunities offered by the Europe for Citizens program. Here are two of the presentations made during the event:

Romanian NGOs and citizens – a solidarity story just beginning – see in PDF

(click on the title above to download the presentation)

 

Watch the debate ReLive here:

 

Some background reading:

1. An interesting discussion paper on the issue of solidarity in the EU;
2. An article on Democracy, Solidarity and the European Crisis;
3. A Policy Paper on“The Citizens of Europe and the European Union in the European Crisis”