In the period of October 6-8, 2011, in Bucharest, the Federation of Romanian Development NGOs together with the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, European Commission, Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized the 4th Black Sea NGO Forum.
The Forum brought together more than 200 organizations from the countries of the region as well as other stakeholders: Romania, Republic of Moldova, Republic of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ukraine, Russian Federation, Georgia, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Albania, Armenia, Tunisia, USA, Sweden and Switzerland. The BSCSIF was represented on the Forum by Felicia Scoarta, Adviser to Secretary General, Mihai Sandu, Expert Group Coordinator of the Central office and Project Experts, Raluca Clotaru, Raisa Popa, Julia Akhunova and Liliana Coman.
The Forum intended to create open space for dialogue, mutual understanding and cooperation between representatives of civil society, governments of the countries and active NGOs in the extended Black Sea region.
Keeping with the tradition of the last year, the award “for the best NGO” was given to the Turkish organization “ARI MOVEMENT”, represented at the Forum by the Vice-president, Arda Batu. The International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea entered in the first five best Black Sea NGOs.
Within the Forum important and actual topics were discussed: Black Sea region in 2011, EU Neighborhood Policy and its Eastern Dimension, the status of the Black Sea region in the EU regional cooperation, transition to democracy, policy of social support and children protection, democratization of the Black Sea region and NGOs’ role in this field.
Panel discussions of the Forum were attended by officials from Romania ( Traian Chebeleu – Deputy of BSEC Secretary General, Mihnea Constantinescu – Director General, MFA, Doru Costea – State Secretary, MFA), Turkey (Suat Kiniklioglu – AK Party), France, Germany.
BSCSIF participation to the Black Sea NGO Forum contributed to the extension of NGO network with the purpose of further cooperation within future projects of the Fund.