ECRAN Environment and Climate Forum 2nd Annual Meeting
Date: 30.03-01.04.2016
Place: Brussels, Belgium
Organizer: ECRAN Secretariat
Annual Meetings takes place in Brussels from March 30 until April 1, 2016. Program is divided into 3
days:
Visit to the European Economic and Social Committee is planned for the first day. ECF members
participation at the Public hearing for REX 459 - Energy Policy and its external dimension. Cem
İskender Aydın (TEMA Foundation Turkey) will presented common ECF NGOs position on the draft
Energy position of the ECSC. Visit to the European Parliament takes place in the afternoon and the
day ends up with roundtable discussion with EESC members.
The second day (March 31, 2016) of the programme is focused on NGO dialogue, planning and work
plan development. Representatives of Brussels based NGOs join the ECF. List of invited guest includes
Vlatka Matkovic Puljic (Health & Environment Alliance - HEAL), Roland Joebst (European
Environmental Bureau) and Dragana Mileusnic, Climate Action Network.
The peak event of visit is meeting and discussion with DG ENV — Directorate-General for the
Environment on April 1, 2016.
The event represents the key opportunity for the civil society to get engaged into dialogue with
representatives of the European Commission, as well as with Brussels based institutions and
organisations. In the same time, the meeting allows for NGOs to self-organize, it aims to provide
state-of- the art information on EU policies and legislation, to develop capacities of NGOs, and to
allow time for bilateral meetings.
Key objectives of the meeting:
To generate and disseminate information (to NGO community, relevant stakeholders and society) on
the recent development in the EU, planned climate and environmental policies and legislation and
up-to- date evaluation of progress and bottlenecks in the EU accession process from the EC and
Brussels based organisations perspective;
To increase capacities of the regional NGOs to participate actively in EU enlargement, identify space
for activities and enhance regional dimension of cooperation;
To bring points and concerns of civil society into the attention to the EU and relevant institutions and
discuss how to address issues and cases identified by the NGOs the enlargement process;
Expected results of the meeting:
- Strengthening the knowledge base of ECF NGOs on EU institutions, the EU climate change and environment policies and legislation, policy processes and in-depth understanding of upcoming opportunities and challenges;
- In-depth understanding of possibilities and potential challenges for non-state actors involvement, how to engage civil society and public to participate and monitor progress in the EU enlargement process;
- Feedback of the EC on the process, issues and cases identified as challenging by the NGOs in the accession process;
