The Citizens' Pact was founded in response to the signing of the Stability Pact Sarajevo, July 1999. Many civic organizations welcomed the Stability Pact but believed it focuses too much on the governmental level. To counterbalance this, several activists from SEE founded the Citizens' Pact in July 2000 as a new platform through which people from SEE can meet, exchange ideas, develop projects and get their voices heard.
The Inter Church Peace Council (IKV, The Hague, The Netherlands) has actively promoted and supported the birth of the Citizens' Pact.
The International Development Agencies NOVIB and Hivos (The Netherlands) are financially supporting the CP network till June 2004.
Regional co-operation serves to integrate South East Europe into the European regional institutions on both a civic and governmental level. The ideals of peace, democracy and tolerance are promoted as an alternative to nationalism and xenophobia, engaging citizens in conflict resolution and prevention.
The CP network members are municipalities and NGOs from 9 countries and regions in SEE. Presently, the network has 117 members, 23 municipalities and 94 NGOs from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro.
CP ACTIVITIESActive members, organizations and municipalities, are the heart of the Citizens' Pact. Without them the CP cannot reach its goals and would not have a reason to exist. The activities of members, their attitude towards regional cooperation, their alertness to political developments, and their knowledge about local situations are all essential for the well functioning of the CP.
The CP has a few tools to support members in their roles, generating projects that are creating connections on a cross-regional basis to promote "Stability from Below".
Cooperation between municipalities and NGO's is especially valued, because it is a powerful tool in narrowing the gap between authorities and citizens, and a unique feature of the Citizens' Pact to have the two sectors in one network.
In the past three years, 32 cross border cooperation projects were implemented by the CP members with a big variety of different topics which is in keeping with the membership structure, where NGOs from all fields of interest and work are accepted and act together with local authorities.
These projects were in one or more of the following areas:
- democratization
- community building
- capacity building of organizations and institutions
- harmonization of inter-ethnic relations
- reconciliation
- active citizenship
CP Campaigns:
The Visa Abolishment Campaign with the aim to enable the abolishment of visas within South Eastern Europe and the liberalization/abolishment of the visa regime based on the Schengen Treaty.
Campaign for the establishment of series of "Protocols on interethnic tolerance" with the long term objective to create an atmosphere of inter-ethnic tolerance in local communities of the region and in the region as a whole.
Citizen participation in local governance with the aim to promote the active citizenship, and especially participation through development of new initiatives in local communities and creating links among existing ones in the region.
CP network of municipalities
During these three years, 9 municipality meetings were organized. A network of 23 member municipalities was extended by participation of significant number of other interested municipalities from the region and EU.
How can your organisation or municipality join us?
Membership is open to NGO's and municipalities from all countries in SEE.
Of course, new members subscribe to the objectives of the CP and the CP statement of intent.
We have defined a couple of criteria for new members.
New members:
- Must not be directly connected to political parties
- Must have a clean war crime record
- Must not be (have been) involved in corruption activities
If all this applies to you, please look at our website for the membership application form, complete it and send it to us.
We will gladly welcome you and your initiatives to the Citizens' Pact.
