EU Commission and Council have wellcomed the Danube Civil Society Froum which is foreseen as an action in the EU action plan (see: Commision wellcomes Council's green light for the EU Strategy for the Danube Region).
More than 110 participants from the entire Danube region gathered in Eisnestadt to inaugurate the Danube Civil Society Forum as the civil society plattform and structure in the Danube Strategy.
The DCSF is an open, non-profit, non-partisan based NGO forum. The Forum is hosted by Foster Europe, Foundation for strong European Regions. The DCSF and Foster Europe do not receive any public funding.

Background

The EU has called on civil society in the Danube Basin to start a process of higher self-organisation and to build up a platform for trans-national, trans-regional and interdisciplinary cooperation, consultation and networking. The Danube Civil Society Forum is the forum for civil society cooperation within the Danube Strategy.

The General Assembly brought together NGO representatives from 14 countries in the Danube Basin working in fields covered by the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. These issues include environment, education, culture, democracy civic and human rights, tourism, youth, third age, transportation, disaster protection, energy, labor market, charitable issues, gender, minorities, vulnerable groups and many others.

Who can participate?

The Danube Civil Society Forum is open to civil society active in non-profit and non-partisan organisations as well as academics (one representative per NGO) from the Danube Region (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine and Moldova, see Map below). He/she should be active in at least one field covered by the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. The activities and/or the location of the NGO are in no way limited strictly to the river Danube, as the EU Strategy is relevant for the entire Danube Basin.