Extraordinary Meeting of the Liaison Committee of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) enjoying participatory status with the Council of Europe

Warsaw, Saturday 14 May 2005

An extraordinary meeting of the Liaison Committee of INGOs will be held in Warsaw University on Saturday 14 May 2005. The participants will gather at the monument of the Warsaw Ghetto on the morning of Sunday 15 May.

This event is organised by the Liaison Committee, the Directorate General of Political Affairs with the assistance of the Council of Europe Information Office in Warsaw.

The Liaison Committee is the representative organ of the Council of Europe’s INGO Conference which is made up of the 374 INGOs enjoying participatory status with the Council of Europe.

Participants
Among the 60 participants will be representatives of the Liaison Committee, Presidents of INGO thematic Groupings, national branches of INGOs enjoying participatory status (from Central and Eastern Europe), national NGOs with which the Directorate General of Political Affairs has co-operated in the implementation of assistance programmes in Central and Eastern Europe and some local NGOs.

Theme
The overall theme of the meeting is “INGOs – actors of a Europe without frontiers”: this theme will be addressed by the keynote speaker in the first plenary session and its practical implications will be dealt with in the parallel workshops.

Aims
The objective of the meeting is to identify means of collective action of INGOs within the Council of Europe and in Europe, for example interaction with Council of Europe bodies, networking, combination of action at national and European levels etc.

Outcome
The expected outcome is the adoption by the INGOs of a concrete plan of action for the next five years.