Hungary: where civil society meets

The two-day event was started by a national NGO conference in the building of the Hungarian Parliament opened by Ms Katalin Szili, Speaker of the House. On the stand of Civiliáda over 150 organisations had the opportunity to introduce themselves including the stand of the National Civil Fund, the National Society of Conservationsists (Friends of the Earth Hungary), the Hungarian Peace Association, the Hungarian Red Cross, many cultural, social and health organisations. The international character was given to the event as the Brussels-based European Economic and Social Committee was represented by its own stand, and EESC-representative Liam O?Bradaigh from Group III Secretariat as panelist in two programmes together with Edith Genser from Education Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency of DG Education and Culture. Civiliáda also hosted the official launch of a 5-country (Austria, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia) regional project on Plan D of the Europen Commission. Entitled ?Our Europe, Our Debate, Our Contribution? it will include ? among others ? an EU-labirinth travelling to the five countries in the course of 2007. During the workshops and seminars of the event issues of European citizenship, the civil society priorities of the government (see separate article), the a nationwide poll on the National Civil Fund, and the operational programmes of the 2007-2013 national development plan were discussed. Civiliáda was organised by European House.