Hungary: autumn of co-operation

Is civil society sufficiently involved into decision-making? The answer has recently departed from an obvious ?no? in Hungary as government conducts open consultations on a number of issues. In autumn 2006 civil society organisations in Hungary could do – if they wished – nothing else but get involved in different consultation processes with the government. These included open debates on the possible revision of the law on the National Civil Fund; the new civil policy of the Hungarian government aims to promote negotiations and lobbying for a more civil-friendly content of the national development plan for 2007-2013 (see articles on these topics linked below). This new type of openness also reached beyond areas (and the ministries dealing with them) where civil society activity is traditionally high (environment, social issues, health) and reached e.g. the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, thought of as one of the less progressive government bodies. The result is characterised by open consultations with the involvement of civil society organisations and experts on different issues including the Balkans situation with special regard to the upcoming elections in Serbia in January 2007 and the Visegrad Fund (a 4-country ? Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, The Czech Republic ? government fund in support of civil society co-operation in the countries involved with an annual budget of 5 million euros). All this in the form of a so-called C and D Café, where C stand for civil society and D for diplomacy. And the involvement of civil society actors continue. The first concrete point of consideration is the open consultation process till the end of March 2007 where civil society actors can put forward their opinion on the Europe strategy of the Hungarian government. These positive developments, together with similar tendencies on the European level including the recent decision to make the meetings of the European Council public, the European Commission?s D-plan launched on democracy, dialogue and debate, and the interactive policy making on the Your Voice website it seems that talk on bridging the gap towards citizens slowly progresses into action. In the given circumstances a major task of civil society organisations is to be able to make good use of these opportunities and make their involvement meaningful and resultful in such debates and the subsequent realisation of programmes. Articles of interest: – on the National Civil Fund: HUNGARY: innovations in ngo financing http://www.vita.it/articolo/index.php3?NEWSID=68312 – on the civil policy of the Hungarian government HUNGARY: a document on the relations between the government and civil society http://www.vita.it/articolo/index.php3?NEWSID=73069 – on the national development plan HUNGARY: new Hungarian National Development Plan http://www.vita.it/articolo/index.php3?NEWSID=71685