The second leg of the Civil Society Planning Meetings for the Forum for the Future was organized with the collaboration of TESEV (Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation), NPWJ (No Peace Without Justice) and HRITC (Human Rights Information and Training Center) under the auspices of the Global Political Trends Center (GPoT). The meeting was intended to be the second and last of the planning meetings among the representatives of civil society and government officials before the Forum for the Future that will be held in Dubai between 16-18th October, 2008.

Without a vibrant civil society interactively immersed in regular dialogue and debate with official state authorities, no development of democratic societies is possible.

The workshop took place with the participation of academics, journalists, politicians and think-tank members from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Sweden and Turkey.

Round Table meeting: Finding Common Grounds IV

As part of the Slovak-Turkish joint initiative "Finding Common Grounds" whose objective is to share experience and information gained in Slovakia during the process of democratic transition and the EU accession, the second workshop was held at Istanbul Kültür University on the 19th of November. Within the scope of this project conducted with the partnership of TESEV Foreign Policy Program, Slovak Foreign Policy Association, GPoT Center and Turkish Daily News, two subsequent workshops will be organized until the end of 2008, one in Istanbul and the other one in Bratislava.