As part of an international civil society project co-funded by the European Union a bus tour was organised on 9-15 September 2012 in EU-member countries to promote EU enlargement from the Western Balkans region. Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights had a representative among participants in the activity, who was a contact point from the Republic of Croatia.
The main feature of the Civil Trust Building tour was the setting up of a labyrinth in different capital cities: Budapest (Hungary, 9 September), Bratislava (Slovakia, 10 September), Vienna (Austria, 11 September), Ljubljana (Slovenia, 13 September) and Udine (Italy, 15 September) to attract the attention of passer-bys on the street. Walking through the labyrinth visitors could answer ten questions related to the geography, culture and EU relations of the 7 countries of the Western Balkans: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. At each labyrinth venue a locally made cake was cut and distributed to visitors.
During the tour CSO representatives from the Western Balkans countries had the chance to promote their countries in different forms: a recipe specific to their respective countries was printed with country information.
"It is not an easy task to promote EU enlargement in the member states", said Mr Miklos Barabas, director of European House (Hungary), the co-ordinator of the project "therefore we use the unconventional means of the labyrinth game to bring the subject and idea closer to citizens".
The EU enlargement labyrinth set up at central locations of the capitals was a good choice: it attracted several hundred visitors in each location. In terms of visitors the most popular site was in Udine where the street action took place as part of the annual Friuli Doc Festival attracting nearly 1000 visitors.
During the tour a questionnaire was also distributed to passer-bys to measure their basic attitudes towards EU enlargement in general and the Western Balkans in particular. The results of the questionnaire will be made available at the end of the project in December 2012.
The participants of the tour noted that such direct, high visibility public activities are needed to make citizens more aware of the nature of EU enlargement and inform them about the countries who wish to join the European Union. They agreed to co-operate also in the future in different projects and activities.
Partners of the project:
Austria: The World of NGOs - www.ngo.at
Hungary: European House (project co-ordinator) - www.europeanhouse.hu
Italy: ARCI - www.arci.it
Romania: Pro Democracy Association - www.apd.ro
Slovakia: Slovak Foreign Policy Association - www.sfpa.sk
Slovenia: Centre for Information Service, Co-operation and Development of NGOs (CNVOS) - www.cnvos.si
Contact points in the 7 Western Balkans countries:
Association of Local Democracy Agencies (ALDA) (contact point co-ordinator) - www.alda-europe.eu
Albania: Partners Albania - Center for Change and Conflict Management
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Local Democracy Agency Zavidovici
Croatia: Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights Osijek
Kosovo: Local Democracy Agency Kosovo
Macedonia: Community Development Institute Tetovo
Montenegro: Local Democracy Agency Montenegro
Serbia: Local Democracy Centre LDA Nis
