Forum Skopje 2

FORUM SKOPJE 2 - “European Cultural Dialogue” brings together representatives of civil society, culture, business and policy-making at the local, regional and European level, including members of the European Parliament and the European Commission. The Forum explores how to foster innovative forms of cross-border cooperation and sustainable structures between civil society and policy-makers.. The Forum Skopje participants will discuss the European responsibility and challenges of cities and regions, and the role of culture and civic initiatives in building democratic structures and fostering the economic and social upswing in Europe.

Culture plays a very important role in every day life in all the South Eastern European countries. However, the independent civil society sector is still confronted with difficulties in finding the right way of involving policy makers and business sector in the working agenda and vice versa.
The basic idea is that Europe is a cultural project, which means that it needs the continuous dialogue in partnership between policy-makers and civil society in order to make a united and open Europe of the Europeans emerge. And this, in turn, means that those involved in the cultural sector must assume the responsibility they share for Europe, and that those who are responsible for Europe at the local, regional, national and European level must recognize the cultural dimension of their work and implement this in practical terms.

Culture must become effective in areas other than the cultural sector, from foreign to regional policy, from the business to the social sector. And this process must be initiated by civil society, which is more flexible than the political sector but must, for its part, develop new forms of committed cooperation with policy-makers to this end.
We believe that policy makers will understand culture as an integral part of their respective areas outside the cultural sector. National policy-makers and the business and administrative sectors will gain better access to civil-society initiatives, and vice versa. Within a well-developed transparent strategic approach policy-makers will appreciate the initiatives coming from the civil sector and will adopt the benefits for the sake of regional development. The social sector will gain a role of a consultant in the decision-making process.