Study Tour by Representatives
of Montenegrin CSOs to Slovakia
On
June 8-11, 2015 eleven representatives of Montenegrin CSOs participated in a
study tour to the Slovak Republic with the aim of learning what the principles are
of the functioning of civil society in the country.
The
study tour was implemented within the project "Civil society decides tooβ,
financed by the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, IPA 2013 Civil
Society Facility Montenegro Programme and coordinated by the Centre for
Development of Non-Governmental Organisations, Montenegro. The study tour had
to contribute to the project specific objective the improvement of the
cooperation between the Montenegrin government and CSOs in the process of
shaping and implementing public policies. This should lead to a higher level of
consultations between state bodies and CSOs, an increased number of CSO
representatives in working groups for drafting public policies and an increased
number of CSOs involved in public discussions.
The
programme for the study tour was developed by NISPAcee experts Jana Oremova and
Ludmila Gajdosova with this specific objective in mind. Within the introductory
seminar, the legal basis of the functioning of the third sector and brief
overview of the opportunities of third sector participation in the
decision-making process were presented. During the introductory discussions,
the participants expressed the numerous expectations to be fulfilled during the
study visits to the selected institutions, such as the decision-making process
in Slovakia, the involvement of the civil sector in the decision-making
process, the system of monetary support for the third sector at central state
level and regional level, and the involvement of young people in civil society
activities.
The
study visits were divided into two groups of institutions. The first group was
the specific central state institutions with competencies in the area of civil
society, such as the National Council of the Slovak Republic β Parliamentary Institute,
Ministry of Finance β Institute for Financial Policy, Ministry of Interior β
Department of the Internal Administration, Section of Public Administration,
Council of the Government for Non-governmental and Non-profit organisations, and
the Plenipotentiary of the Government for the Development of Civil Society. Included
in the second group of institutions visited were various Slovak NGOs, i.e. the 1st
Slovak Non-profit Service Centre, the Slovak NGDO Platform, and the Centre for
Philanthropy and Association of Towns and Villages of Slovakia.
During
the study visits, the participants obtained complex information regarding the
legal system of civil society in Slovakia, the system for creating, registering
and actions of the NGOs, historical development of the third sector in
Slovakia, various types and forms of Slovak NGOs, the decision-making process
in Slovakia and opportunities for involving the third sector in this, the system
of financing and monetary support of the third sector from the central state
and regional level in Slovakia, mainly the support from self-governments,
income tax assignation and public purses, forms of cooperation between the
third sector and central state bodies and regional administrations and other
practical experience and advice from the Slovak experts involved regarding the actions of civil society after EU
accession.
In
the final part of the event, all study visits and lessons learned were
discussed and evaluated. The participants really appreciated the quality of the
study tour and confirmed that all their expectations had been met. They
considered the actual problems of the Montenegrin civil society to be the low
approximation of law in practice, missing integration and transparency of
Montenegrin civil society and a regular system of financial support by the
public administration or self-administration.
Regarding
the most inspiring and useful Slovak law instruments, the participants
considered these to be the system of income tax assignation and the legal setup
of public purses. These instruments could also create the legal bases for the
system of financial support for civil society in Montenegro and could solve the
problem of the lack of systematic state/regional monetary assistance to the
Montenegrin third sector. More information about these selected instruments
will be provided in the framework of the planned final project conference in Podgorica,
Montenegro in October 2015.