Carmen Stadelhofer, Akad. Dir’in a.D.
Coordinator of the 2nd Participation Day,
President of Danube-Networkers for Europe (DANET) e.V. and of ILEU e.V.
On the 29th/30th of October 2015, the 4th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) took place in Ulm, Germany. Following the example of the conference 2014, a 2nd Participation Day for civil society actors was scheduled prior to the main conference on the 28 of October, in Ulm as well.
The 2nd Participation Day 2015 aimed to contribute to a stronger involvement of civil society and local actors of the 14 EUSDR countries in the implementation of the EUSDR. It provided a platform for debate, opinion building, exchange and cooperation for the representatives from civil society organizations and local actors in the Danube Region.
Moderation: Jörg Mirtl, Coordination of the Danube Local Actors Platform (D-LAP)
Opening address was by Gisela Erler, State Counselor for Civil Society and Civic Participation of the State Government Baden-Württemberg and by Stefan August Lütgenau, President of Danube Civil Society Forum.
Afterwards Jan W. van Deth, Professor of Political Science and International Comparative Social Research, Mannheim University and Roberts Kilis, Associate professor, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga gave plenary lectures.
Three contributions “Experience from the field” were lectured by Sonja Jilek / Matthias Ripp, Srdan Stankovic and Ecaterina Mardarovici.
In the afternoon 12 working groups with different subjects took place with key word reports from the working groups in the plenum afterwards.
The Resolutions of the Participation Day 2015 were given by Stefan August Lütgenau, President of the Danube Civil Society Forum and Jörg Mirtl, Coordination of the Danube Local Actors Platform (D-LAP).
The Closing panel was from Kurt Puchinger, Priority Area Coordinator, Priority Area 10 of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region and Gisela Erler, State Counsellor for Civil Society and Civic Participation of the State Government Baden-Württemberg.
In the evening a social event was opened by Peter Friedrich, Minister for the Bundesrat, Europe and International affairs, Baden-Württemberg, Germany followed by a dialogue of Ivo Gönner, Lord Mayor of Ulm and Christoph Dahl, Executive Director of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, moderated by Werner Schempp, Director, European Politics, International Affairs and Protocol, State Ministry Baden-Württemberg.
Pictures and videos of these interesting contributions can be found on the website www.danubestrategy.eu
The 2nd Participation Day was organised by the Institut für virtuelles und reales Lernen in der Erwachsenenbildung an der Universität Ulm (ILEU) e.V. (Institute for virtual and face-to-face learning in adult education at Ulm University) in close cooperation with a Steering Committee consisting of representatives of the Danube Civil Society Forum (DCSF) of the EUSDR, ILEU e.V., the Priority Area 10 Institutional Capacity and Cooperation of the EUSDR and Agapedia gGmbH.
This event was supported by: State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, Robert Bosch Stiftung, City of Ulm, Foster Europe Foundation, ILEU e.V., Ulm University and Haus der Begegnung.