INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CIVIL PARTICIPATION
Ljubljana, Slovenia, 12 November 2009

Speech at the opening session by Antonella Valmorbida, Chair of the Civil Society and Democracy Committee of the Conference of INGOs

Dear distinguished representatives of the Slovenian Government and host organisations, dear participants,

I am particularly happy and honoured to take the floor in this opening session of the International Conference on Civil Participation in Europe, here in Ljubljana.

The Conference of the International Non Governmental Organisations of the Council of Europe represents in itself an amazing and very modern instrument of participation and dialogue between civil society and policy makers. Indeed, it sits in “quadrilogue” relations with the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to identify the policies of the Council of Europe. Of course in an intergovernmental organisation, the INGOs can struggle to be recognised in their – however recognised – participatory status, but at the Council of Europe, in particular in terms of democracy and respect for human rights, many important steps are taken together with civil society groups and the Conference is a fundamental platform for this co-operation.

Under its new structure, the Conference can count on the supportive work of the Committees, which are thematically oriented and are composed of participative and active members. The Committee on Civil Society and Democracy, which I chair, looks forward to assisting the policy of the INGO Conference as a whole.

My approach as newly elected chair reminded me of my first days at university in Milan, at the public university of Political Sciences. At the beginning, I knew exactly which was my way but the whole mechanisms of the system were unclear: what to do, when, with whom. But, despite this, I identified some things which I had to do for sure. Things that I knew were good things to do.

Well, in my chairmanship of these last twelve months, the thing that I identified as something good to do was to assist the work on the Code of Good Practices for Civil Participation in the Decision Making.

Even if at times I had problems understanding what was the most effective way to support the cause of civil society and to support the democratic process in Europe through the work of the Committee, I had something clear in mind: we needed to support the process of consultation and elaboration of the Code.

The present code was requested by the Forum for the Future of Democracy held in Sweden and then drafted with the support of experts and NGOs in Europe. The final version was approved by the Conference of the INGOs at its meeting in September and was presented in Kyiv at the meeting the Forum for the Future of Democracy last month at which it got the approval of the work to be done. Moreover, a recent Declaration of the Committee of Ministers on the Code of Good Practice endorsed the document and invited governments, parliaments and local authorities to “to take due account of the Code when developing NGO participation in the decision making process …”.

So, today we are the end of the beginning or, to say it differently, we are at the real beginning with the phase of implementation of the Code. And I must say that I am thrilled to do it with you here and with all my colleagues of the NGO sector and the partners in this process from all the different sectors represented.

A plan for the implementation of the Code shall go ahead next year and we are talking about involving all the stakeholders in decision making at the national and local level, to use the code as an “excuse” to boost the civil participation or “to help” in practical terms the implementation of the solutions offered by the Code. Indeed I can say that (even with different means and terms) the content of the code could be applied throughout Europe and unites us all. We will then start a visibility and dissemination process and create systems of cooperation on the basis of what the code suggests. An important step will also be the monitoring of this implementation phase.

But, let me tell you that the best feedback I have had so far on this document is that I heard people saying that it “is a good instrument to support civil participation”. These people knew me as a local NGO leaders and did not know about my personal involvement in the Council of Europe. So this shows that they just “meant” it was “a good instrument” and were not just pretending it was in order to please me. As an NGO leader, I also read it and found some good “hints” to guide me in my leadership and to share with the others.

The Code is simple and often what is simple is brilliant. It might be technical in its form but it is highly political in its objectives. And the practitioners, of which I am one, recognise this.

I am looking forward, in the future, to evaluating the results of this implementation since, we are all aware, there is no way out of the present situation, political or economical, without a genuine and vivid – and participative – civil society.

On behalf of the Conference of the International NGO I would like to thank Imra Maznaric, Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration and Ms. Tina Micheli, from the Centre for Information Service for NGOs, who both worked hard to make this event possible.