News from the ENV.net
 

30 May - 3 June: Green week 2016

The Commission will host Green Week, the biggest annual occasion to discuss European environment policy, taking place from Monday, 30 May to Friday, 3 June 2016.
This year's theme is on "Investing for a greener future": how investment should integrate economic opportunity with sustainable environment practice.
Events and activities will take place across Europe, centred round a high-level conference in Brussels on Wednesday 1 June, with a wide variety of organisations and partners taking part. Have a look to the programme!

All countries: ENV.net training programme

Distance learning courses:
a) "Fundraising for CSOs", the new ENV.net course about fundraising for CSOs. Next e-trainings: 8th - 22nd June 2016
b) "CSOs activism and participation", the ENV.net course on how to develop an advocacy and lobbying strategy and to influence the decision making process: Next e-trainings: 13th - 27th June 2016
c) “Social media, Activism and participation”, The ENV.net course on social media (read more):  Next e-trainings: 7th - 21st June 2016.
d) “Get funding from the European Union”: the course developed by ENV.net regards the EU as resource partner (read more).  Next e-trainings: 1st - 15th June 2016
To take part, interested participants should first register to the ENV.net e-learning platform here and then choose the course to attend from the "course catalogue". Further inquiries about the course may be sent to env.net-helpdesk@puntosud.org (or click here).

In-country news: ENV.net in action

Albania: ENV.net team in Albania together with Center for Research, Cooperation and Development in Vlora, in the frame of the joint activity “My Natural Resources” organized on 13th and 24th May an awareness activity with students of “Jani Minga” School in Vlora and "Ali Asllani" high School. The focus of the activities were to inform the students about the importance and values of the natural recourse in Vlora region, especially in areas of high environmental values importance,  as Marine and Coastal Park of Sazan – Karaburun, National Park of Llogora, Narta Lagoon (Ramsar site), Velca caves, etc. For more information, click here.
ENV.net team in Albania together with Institute of Environmental Policy NGOs took part in the Environmental NGO Fair organized by the Municipality of Tirana on 22nd May. The aim of the open activity was a way to introduce to the wider community the work developed so far by the environmental NGOs operating in the country, and also to encourage further collaboration between partners (read more).
 
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:  With aim to provide a forum for discussion on human security issues, recently a topic so much relevant in the Balkans and Turkey and the EU, Ch4hs (Citizens’ Network for Human Security) organised a two-day event, that was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The main topics included issues of human (in)security, dynamics of globalisation and policies of securitisation, as well as discussions on other pending human security issues deemed important by the participants to the forum, like small arms, environment, education, social polarisation, networking etc.
Cn4hs project, implemented in four Balkan countries (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo) and Turkey, plus Bulgaria is established and supported under the EU FPA programme.
Representatives of ENV.net team from Macedonia, together with more then 70 representatives from Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Turkey, France and Greece (members of Ch4hs network, funded via the EU FPA programme) participated in this two-day event. The event provided a forum for meeting, discussions and exchange of information and experience among the participants.
Additionally, it gave us an opportunity to point to the right to a safe, healthy and ecologically-balanced environment as a human right in itself, as relevant for the voice of citizens when dealing with human security matters.
At the end of the event participants signed a joint statement to formally establish an expanded Citizens’ Network for Human Security (cn4hs) active in addressing the challenges for human security in the Balkans and Turkey and to cooperate, advocate and promote solutions to these challenges.

Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244/99): Initiative “Let’s clean Kosova” on 24th May organized its cleaning campaign in the entire Kosovo. This initiative is a citizen initiative that deals with activities for protecting the environment in Kosovo, addressing environmental problems and organizing cleaning actions. “Let’s clean Kosova” is part of a global “Let's Do It World” that is present in 110 countries in the World.   
In order to mark this important day, more than 60.000 volunteers in 30 Municipalities were engaged in order to eliminate 147 illegal dumping sites and other garbage filled areas. More than 5.000 tons of garbage resulted to be collected during a one-day activity.

Serbia: The ENV.net team in Serbia, EASD, is preparing the regional conference which will be held on June 6th in Belgrade with the support of UNEP. The theme will be "Climate change and Sustainability of Resources. Click here to have a look to the agenda.

I. 3rd international day of action against Chevron and 30 conflicts
At the occasion of the 3rd international day of action against Chevron on 21 May, a new map has been added to the Atlas of Environmental Justice to show 30 conflicts created by Chevron. The European Environmental Bureau, has worked with the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and a network of universities and NGOs all over the world on this, the largest database of environmental conflicts.
II.  Future of European Common Agricultural Policy: UnCAP the Truth
Mounting evidence confirms that we are going in the wrong direction when it comes to environmental delivery of the CAP as a whole, and environmental integration in particular. Not only did the policy lose its green colour all the way through the political negotiations, now the worrying warning from Science Magazine is turning into a sad reality: EU agricultural reform is indeed set to fail on biodiversity - and on the environment as a whole.
III.  EEB Annual Conference 2016 - Save the date!
This year the EEB’s Annual Conference will be hosted by our Austrian member Umweltdachverband in Vienna, on Monday 26 September 2016.
After the adoption last year of the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the historic Paris climate deal, 2016 must be a year of delivery. This means the systematic implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals through the adoption of a Sustainable Development Strategy that will help the EU move away from firefighting to solving its major challenges in a coherent, holistic, sustainable manner. It also means concrete progress in developing and implementing policies to limit climate change, protect biodiversity, green agriculture, promote a genuine circular economy and eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies.
Organized together with EEB Austrian member Umweltdachverband, the EEB’s 2016 Annual Conference will debate how policies can and should be delivered to tackle these challenges, with a particular focus on climate and energy, biodiversity and the circular economy.
We invite you to join us in Vienna on 26 September 2016, together with high-level speakers from the EU institutions, academia and civil society, to exchange ideas and opinions and discuss concrete solutions to some of the main environmental questions facing Europe and the world.
The full programme and online registrations will be available closer to the conference at EEB website.

Q: What about the co-financing of the action?
 
A: A grant beneficiary generally contributes to the financing of the action unless full Union financing is essential for the action to be carried out. The co-financing should come from other sources that are not from the EU budget or EDF.
Grants are expressed as a maximum amount of the eligible costs: the contracting authority’s contribution usually covers a certain percentage of costs, according to the rules set in the Call for Proposal (which also defines maximum and minimum amounts of contribution).