The 10th anniversary of the “Civil Society Dialogue between Turkey and the EU Programme” celebrated with a live online event.
The 10th anniversary of the “Civil Society Dialogue between Turkey and the EU Programme” was celebrated on March 9th, 2021, with a live online event titled “10 Years of Dialogue”. The Directorate of EU affairs started the programme ten years ago to make the highest contribution of civil society to the EU accession process, making it one of the longest-running EU grant programmes.
The first panel session of the event was called “Dialogue Square” and was moderated by Mirgün Cabas. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director of EU Affairs Ambassador, Faruk Kaymakcı, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey Ambassador, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, The Chair of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund and Former Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, Stefano Manservisi, and The Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey and Economic Development Foundation (IKV) Brussels Representative, Haluk Nuray participated in this panel.
In the “Dialogue Square” panel, Turkey’s relations with the European Union were discussed based on the civil society dialogue perspective. Faruk Kaymakcı, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director of EU Affairs Ambassador stated that the Civil Society Dialogue grant programme, which was implemented more than ten years ago, acts as a bridge between the civil societies of Turkey and the EU. He emphasized the importance of uninterruptedly continuing these kinds of programmes, furthering and solidifying the achieved benefits.
Within the other event session, grant beneficiaries of the Civil Society Dialogue projects participated in the “Stories of the Civil Society Dialogue” panels. The Civil Society Dialogue projects were implemented in a wide range of thematic fields since 2008. These panels were moderated by Mirgün CABAS, Cüneyt ÖZDEMİR, Ceyda DÜVENCİ, Cem SEYMEN, Bünyamin SÜRMELİ and Semiha ŞAHİN.
The audience of the “10 Years of Dialogue” event was comprised of civil society organization members from Turkey and the European Union, public institution representatives, Civil Society Dialogue grant beneficiaries, academics, journalists, youth, civil society volunteers and many other institutions and individuals.
A virtual exhibition of photos from the Civil Society Dialogue projects, musical performances from Turkey and the EU, promotional films and cartoon shows were presented to the audience.
