Power in Transition II

The workshop has examined the current NGO situation in the region.The workshop establishes that the will to democratization and involvement of the civil society is notfollowed up by a matching determination in the political practice.The workshop therefore urges the Council of The Baltic Sea States to prepare a survey that showshow the civil societies and their organizations are being involved into the decision processes onlocal and national level in the region and how public authorities and civil society organisations incommon are contributing to the development of the societies, are identifying problems anddeveloping models for solutions.The survey must be followed by an outline of examples of best practices from the individualcountries showing how the existing laws and regulations on citizens’ involvement have beenrealized. In this connection also the gender perspective and the situation for marginalized groupsmust be illustrated.Such a survey can be seen as a natural continuation of CBSS survey from 2003: ”Power inTransition: The Legislative and Executive Branches of Power at the turn of the 21st Century”.