CEE Citizens Network's blog

there was an excellent presentation made this past week at the Committee on Sustainable Territorial Development by Ulrich Bohner who is the Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities at the CoE.

here is one quote:
If democracy is the power of people, then people’s participation in power-sharing and decision-making is its essential requirement. It has become especially clear when, looking for reasons for people’s disenchantment with politics and politicians – which is particularly reflected in falling voter turnouts during elections – the international community had to acknowledge a growing feeling among our citizens that they are unable to influence political decisions, that they exist separately from political life, and that they are powerless to change anything. In other words, that they don’t matter.

for the whole speech click on:

https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1510961&Site=Congress&BackColorInternet=e0cee1&BackColorIntranet=e0cee1&BackColorLogged=FFC679

Chuck

On Thursday 2nd April, we held a one day conference that was joint hosted by our member Crono, the Rural Network  of Romania and the Citizens Network.  There were approximately 50 people present.  Many of the representatives from the Citizen Network members were there for the first time and it was very good to meet such talented and interesting members.  An interesting discussion took place before lunch regarding peoples experience of involving citizens at different phases of community development work.  In the afternoon, there were group reports followed by a very lively discussion about future activities between our groups. A number of interesting and valuable suggesitons were made.  A brief report will be published shortly on our web site along with pictures.

We have invited Jos Lemmers from the Council of Europe to join us in Sofia to discuss Local Democracy Week/ Citizen Participation Week