The Federation of Romanian Development NGOs (FOND) announces the launching this fall of the Black Sea NGO Forum: “Time to Meet”. The Forum will be held on October 31 – November 2, 2008 in Bucharest, Romania. It will be the start of an annual tradition bringing together NGOs from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, Russia and other EU member states active in the wider Black Sea region. The event is organized in cooperation with organizations from Georgia, Moldova and Russia, and in partnership with the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation and UNDP Romania, Info-Prim Neo has learnt from the Caucasus Environment NGO Network. The aim of this event is to increase the level of dialog and coordination among NGOs in the wider Black Sea region as well as to strengthen the advocacy capacity of NGOs in the Black Sea region in order to influence development strategies in the region. The forum will not be just another seminar about the Black Sea region, but rather refined interaction between key civic leaders from the region, led and owned by the countries in the region with the support and contribution of the European and Euro-Atlantic community. Over 100 NGOs are expected to attend the event.