Newsletter – n°24 – October 2013

In other news

For some years now, Central and Eastern European countries passed from beneficiary to donor status, and their commitment to development cooperation was deepened and diversified. Building on historic ties with former communist bloc countries, they develop partnerships with the Eastern neighbourhood and Balkan countries, but also with African countries.

Slovakia, who celebrated the 10^th anniversary of its cooperation agency (Slovakaid) by a conference convened by the Foreign Affairs Minister, is a good example of this evolution. Indeed, Slovakaid is now an important partner for Serbia, Moldavia, the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, but also for Kenya.

The event was an opportunity to revisit this evolution and to examine the future Slovak cooperation programmes.

During the conference, Sandra Ceciarini, Director of PLATFORMA, took the floor in the roundtable on the future European development policy and specifically underlined the role of Slovak local and regional governments in accompanying their counterparts in partner countries in democratic transition.

The conference, co-organised by the Pontis foundation, gathered decision makers from Slovakia, Europe (among whom the Commissioner for development Andris Piebalgs) and partner countries, as well as representatives of civil society. Sandra Ceciarini participated on the invitation of the Slovak association of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, which is more and more actively committed in favour of local and regional authorities in partner countries.