Bulgarian-Yugoslav Task Forse

This was a series of workshops between Bulgarians with special "transition" experience and relevant groups in Yugoslavia. Topics were suggested by Serbian NGOs; Bulgarian participants were organized by CLS, and Serbian participants by the relevant Serbian NGO. The following topics were discussed:

• “Ex-communist lawyers functioning in a democratic system”- sharing of experience by Bulgarian lawyers who successfully made that transition.
• “Students for change”- experience exchange of Bulgarian students with Serbian colleagues experience of being a student in politicized times.
• “Transition in the Army”- presentation of the process of depoliticization of the Bulgarian Army and its change from a conscriptive to a professional one by officers from the Bulgarian Army.
• “Political expertise in times of change”- discussion of political sociologists and scientists from Bulgaria about the new political and social role of their particular kind of expert knowledge in times of democratic change.
• “NGOs in times of change”- presentation of typical problems arising from dealings with governments, political parties, foreign donors and the public during transition by Bulgarian NGO-builders and leaders.

In the framework of the project CLS organized a visit of a Serbian delegation of NGO’s leaders and opinion makers to Bulgaria and met them with journalists and Bulgarian NGOs. A Bulgarian delegation visited Belgrade to discuss some of the above mentioned topics. Two conferences were organized to summarize the common work and products. 20 representatives of the third sector, journalists and opinion makers from each country participated in the conferences.
A paper was prepared, printed and translated in Serbian.

Period: July 2001 - September 2003

Coordinators: Deyan Kiuranov