U-Impact!

On April 7-9, 2915 ProInfo organized the launch event of U-Impact, starting with a Conference on the effectiveness of citizen participation.

The April 7 Conference included presentations on:

• Effectiveness of Citizen Participation Index by Iva Taralezhkova, Chairman of the Board, Forum Citizen Participation;

• “Our Voice”: the Bulgarian Platform for Legislative Initiatives by Pavleta Alexieva, Programme Director, Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law;

• The ECI which succeed in Bulgaria but failed in Europe by Sasha Bezuhanova, founder, MoveBG; See the MoveBG presentation here.

Watch the Session of Citizen Impact in Bulgaria (with English interpretation)

The Mechanisms of Civil Impact in Europe were be discussed by speakers from:

– Partners Albania, Center for Change and Conflict Management, Albania

– European Citizen Action Service, Belgium

– NGO Support Centre, Cyprus

– Open Estonia Foundation, Estonia

– Cittadinanzattiva Onlus, Italy

– National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, Romania

– Fundación Ciudadanía, Spain

Watch the Session on citizen impact in the EU here:

A separate session provided an opportunity to meet the “under-represented” and discuss the hardship they meet to impact policy. The guest speakers included representatives of:

• Association Solidarnost which runs a rehabilitation and re-socialization program for drug and alcohol dependent people;

Presentation Solidarnost – Our Citizen Participation in the EU

• Association Largo, a Roma activist group from the city of Kjustendil

• The Women Refugee Council, helping refugees from the conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere with their social integration in Bulgaria.

The event was attended by over 70 participants from 10 countries.

Watch the address to the Conference by MEP from Bulgaria Svetoslav Malinov

It is high time to give national MEP’s the right to pose question to the ministers and the prime minister in the national Parliament. This will make European politics a part of the national political debate.

To see the video with English subtitles go here ;

for the original in Bulgarian click on the image below: