Civil Society Dialogue Programme Implemented by the Ministry For EU Affairs Begins

The implementation of the Civil Society Dialogue Programme is going to start with an opening ceremony on 11 November 2014. The programme will form a part of Türkiye’s New European Union Communication Strategy that was declared to the public on 16 October 2014 by the Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Volkan Bozkır.

The Programme is financed under the Pre-Accession Assistance. In total, 55 dialogue projects will be jointly implemented by 142 civil society organizations that are active in political criteria and media and come from EU member states and Türkiye. Financial support amounting to 7 million Euros will be allocated to the projects.

The programme is a continuation of various successful programmes that have been implemented with different subjects and are aimed at improving the cooperation and the dialogue between civil society organizations from Türkiye and the EU. Representatives of civil society organizations will come together at the opening ceremony that will take place at CerModern on 11 November 2014 at 19.00 with the participation of Deputy Minister for EU Affairs Alaattin Büyükkaya, Undersecretary of the Ministry for EU Affairs and Ambassador Rauf Engin Soysal and Director General for Enlargement at the European Commission Christian Danielsson.

After the opening ceremony, three-day-long grant implementation training will be delivered to the grant beneficiaries. In addition to the training, representatives from civil society, media and public institutions will convene in a workshop to discuss a roadmap for the dialogue seminars that are envisaged to be organized in different provinces in Türkiye during the implementation period of the programme. In the dialogue seminars, professional knowledge will be conveyed to the participants in order to make it easier for them to track the EU accession process of Türkiye. In the workshop, it is also aimed to focus on methods of how to disseminate studies conducted on EU to all segments of society.

Civil Society Dialogue Programme

The implementation of the Civil Society Dialogue Programme has started in 2008 by the Ministry for EU Affairs. The Programme aspires to ensure and improve sustainable cooperation between civil societies of Türkiye and the EU. In the context of the Civil Society Dialogue Programme, approximately 31.6 million Euros were allocated to more than 200 partnership projects that build up sustainable communication networks, bring societies of Türkiye and the EU closer to each other and enable experience sharing.