Visitors:
Participation at the 3rd Western Balkan
Civil Society Forum
Brussels, 18-19 May, 2010
Civil Society Forum
Brussels, 18-19 May, 2010
The organizer of the Forum, European Economic and Social Committee is organizing consultation for a with civil society organizations every 2 years. Last meeting was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Environmental organizations have not been very involved in these meetings, or informed about EESC activities in the past. On the recommendation from a Brussels based NGO (we believe it was EEB), some of us were officially invited to take part, due to the fact that we represent NGOs working on transport in the region of interest, and because the main topic of this year’s Forum was discussing how civil society organizations can monitor the Treaty establishing the Transport Community.
Participants at the Forum were from the following organizations/ institutions:
• 23 representatives from unions and employers groups,
• 21 representatives from EU delegations and EC,
• 12 CSOs based in Brussels,
• 30 CSOs from the region.
On the first day there were official opening sessions and presentations on the following topics:
• The relations between the European Union (EU) and the countries of the region: state of play
• How to improve the implementation of economic and social rights?
• What role for civil society organisations in monitoring the implementation of the Treaty establishing a Transport Community?
The letter that we prepared the week before (addressing the necessity for involvement of eNGOs and concrete comments on the content of the EESC Opinion on the Transport policy in the Western Balkan countries) was already received and read by most of the participants from the EESC. During the breaks in the morning we managed to talk to several people, Mr. Miklos Barabas, chairing the session on the Transport community, Mr. Patrik Zoltvany, member of the EESC, Rapporteur of the EESC opinion on Transport Policy in the Western Balkans and Ms. Metka Roksandic, member of the EESC, President of the Western Balkans Contact group. Ms. Roksandic gave us concrete advise on what to request and expect from the EESC regarding the involvement of eNGOs in the monitoring of the Transport treaty. We discussed with all of them possibilities to change and improve the final conclusions of the Forum and worked with them on the wording.
During this last 3rd session, Ms. Roksansdic raised the issue of having a special Forum for the environmental NGOs, one that would serve as an advisory body to the Transport Treaty. The Energy Treaty has a Social Forum that mainly discusses social legislation and labour rights and having a mix of Social and Enviro Forum would not make sense. We strongly supported this (as initially the request came from our side) and raised several additional points:
• The existence of Environmental Forum and possibilities to use it for future monitoring of the Treaty,
• The need to focus more on investigating the real needs in the region for transport developments rather than limit the Treaty on core transport networks/ corridors.
• The need to have environmental legislation applied to all projects (SEA, EIA and EIA in transboundary context and biodiversity acquis).
General information on the process and structure of the Treaty establishing the Transport community:
• Currently there is negotiating round with the countries and it is in the final stage. EESC say that due to the Serbia- Kosovo relations, that the Treaty is delayed and will not enter into force until the issue is resolved.
• The treaty would focus on 4 modes of transport: road, rail, inland, waterway.
• There would be requirements for each country in aligning its legislation to the transport acquis and when this is achieved, the country moves forward (there will be a peer review to check whether the transport regulations and provisions are in place and implemented).
• Yet to be discussed- the seat of the Treaty. There will be a Secretariat to assist the Regional Steering Committee (established by the signatories and EC). The Treaty should be signed by 7 countries and EC. The Regional Steering Committee will follow the implementation of the Treaty and it will get support from Technical Committees (there will be one for each mode of transport, and there could be one for Environment as a subcommittee to follow the impacts on environment).
On the second day there were presentations on the following topics:
• How to further reinforce the capacities of civil society organisations?
• Possibilities for future cooperation
• Presentation of the Forum conclusions
During the last session we and other participants requested changes in the conclusions from the Forum, namely:
• In the conclusions under the Transport Community there is a paragraph where participants of the Forum call on the Governments, IFIs and the EU that “ the investment must focus on identified core regional networks”. We requested that this sentence is changed because in this way the investments would be limited only to the main corridors- we (and other colleagues from ETF) proposed a phrasing in the lines of “investment into identified core regional networks and other important/ strategic transport projects”. Pushing too hard for taking out “core regional networks” would have resulted in an opposition from the EESC and we still wanted to keep them as partners and to some extent as supporters in the process of setting up the environmental forum/ advisory group for the Transport Treaty. This proposal of wording was accepted at the session, but the final version is the following: “They also highlight the fact that investments must focus on identified core regional networks and their strategic links, and that these must be closely coordinated with the trans-European transport networks (TEN-T) and their future development at EU level.”
• When speaking of transport, inserting the word “sustainable” before it.
• Other changes regarding the involvement of environmental civil society organizations and establishment of Environmental Forum prepared the previous day were accepted by other participants.
Follow-up activities:
1. Distribution of the conclusions from this forum on national level among NGOs.
2. Discussing the possibilities for transforming the current Environmental Forum into an advisory body to monitor the Transport Treaty. Although this Forum has been set up through a project, the EC would like to see existing structures continue their work and we can request that this structure be kept for future use for the monitoring of the Treaty.
3. See the possibilities for establishing such a monitoring body for the Energy Treaty.
4. Influence the EESC in introducing environment in their agenda.
5. Closely monitor the developments after this Forum, and in communication with EESC see that the recommendations from the Forum are accepted by EC.