Third Round of the Competition on Public Partnership Promotion in Ukraine-Moldova-Romania has been announced

The Soros Foundation-Moldova, East-East: Partnership Beyond Borders Programme (EE/PBB), in cooperation with Soros Foundation-Romania and International Renaissance Foundation-Kyiv announce the third round of the Competition on Public Partnership Promotion in the region: Ukraine-Moldova-Romania. According to the organisers of the competition, its goal is to develop partnership between civic societies of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania for enforcing democratic values and strengthening principles of sustainable development in the context of the EU enlargement to the region. Proposals that envision international exchange of experience in promotion of democratic values, social innovations and public activity particularly in trans-border regions will be supported. The proposals are planned together with partners from all three countries as long-term initiatives and are to be implemented both in three of the countries in the format of brainstorming meetings, seminars, study visits, workshops, etc. EE/PBB Programme will cover local expenses to support the implementation of hosting projects and travel expenses for invited participants when the projects are implemented in a partner country. The competition areas are: supporting national reforms through the European integration efforts and monitoring of public processes in the region: action plans implementation, security issues, human rights monitoring, borders openness; Opportunities and challenges for regional cooperation in the framework of Romania's EU Accession to encourage transfer of experience and lessons learned; Strengthening partnership between NGOs and Local Authorities through inter- and intra-sectors activities; Approaching prospects of European and Euro-Atlantic integration in the Black Sea Region through facilitation of cooperation and dialog between public of the region to solve regional problems related to security, migration processes, ethnic minorities rights, ecology, etc. The eligible applicants are the following: NGOs, local authorities, mass media, policy centres, educational institutions and others. The Program will not support proposals that envision: world congresses or conferences; highly tailored conferences or scientific events; network meetings; individual research projects; art events; particular translation and publishing activity; institutional support and an infrastructure development; commercial or profitable activity. The deadline for submission is June 22. The concept paper submitted should receive approval from the EE/PBB Programme Advisory Committees from all Participating Foundations, then the selected applicants will be asked to prepare complete projects by September 2007. And after the project proposal receives approval, it will be submitted to the Open Society Institute-London that will take the final decision. The projects should be planned to be implemented starting from January 2008. The authors of the most successful concept papers will be invited to attend the Regional Conference to be held in Bucharest by mid-September that will facilitate the dialogue between the NGO representatives and local authorities from the all three participating countries.