On 9th of May 2014, Co-PLAN together with another organization, located in Vlora city in Albania, CRCD (Center for Research Cooperation and Development) organized in Vlora city, Albania a cleaning day “Get together to get things done” with almost 130 pupils in three different schools of the city “Jani MINGA, Ali DEMI and Qemal ATATURK”, where they cleaned up and modulate their outside environment, through painting walls and other equipments around. In collaboration with the Regional Directorate of Education and Municipality of Vlora some of students were brought to Vlora Waterfront to clean up, prior to the opening new touristic season during the weekend.

The activity started around 10:30 in all high schools and after 12:00 o’clock the activity was transfer to Vlora waterfront for the next cleaning part. Students were provided with blouses and hats and other equipments for the clean up activity

On May 10, 2014 ENV.net Serbia held workshops for preschoolers and first graders in front of the Centre of aquatic sports,” Ada Ciganlija”. Workshops were held in the framework of the project “Development of the ENV.net in West Balkans and Turkey: giving citizens a voice to influence the environmental process reforms for closer EU integration,” and at the same time  promoting EU “Let us clean up Europe!”  day.  The workshop was attended by children from Kindergarten “1001 radost” and elementary schools “Janko Veselinovic” and “Despot Stefan Lazarevic”.

Children actively participated in workshops and demonstrated a high level of knowledge on a given topic and a great interest.

Great moment was environmental performance “Ekosferci” which is the result of joint involvement of children, parents and teachers.

More moments from this event in the gallery of pictures.

Co-PLAN and Polis University in collaboration with Ministry of Energy and Industry, Municipality of Tirana, Association of Albanian Construction and Private companies on applying therm-insulation technology organized in a National Television Network a debate regarding Energy efficiency issues and potentials of renewable energy sources in Albania. (watch the TV debate Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

The discussion was mainly focused on legislation gaps, where the new law on energy efficiency is still not being approved, and on the fact that the country is lacking the energy audit experts which should certify the existing building on their actual energy performance and instruct inhabitants how to improve their energy performance by saving more and more energy.

Several examples were brought by the experts on pilot projects being implemented on improving energy buildings performance across the country, and how they have impacted on raising a little bit awareness to the wider community to start their own initiative on therm-insulating their own dwellings, and purchasing A or A+ electrical appliances.

Another issue raised was the absolute need for more awareness activities for the community to understand better how efficient are they on their daily energy consume and what can they do on improving their behavior, what measures they should take etc.

ENV.net is going to participate with some activities to the Let’s clean up Europe day on the 9th and 10th of May 2014.

In Albania, the partner Co-PLAN together with another organization, located in Vlora city in Albania, CRCD (Center for Research Cooperation and Development) will organize in Vlora city a cleaining day “Get together to get things done” (see the 9-Maji Poster-1) with almost 130 pupils in three different schools of the city, where they will clean up their territory and the neighborhood and they will develop several education activities in the field about how to keep the environment cleaned. This activity will be joint by the representatives of the Regional Directorate of Education in Vlora Region and the Municipality of Vlora, which will help on transporting all collected waste by the pupils. All pupils will be provided with stamped logos blouses and hats, gloves masks and emergency equipments for any possible incidents in the field. The activity will start around 12 o’clock in all the three schools.

In Serbia, ENV.net partner EASD is going to organize eco-workshops for preschool and school children and over one hundred children is expected to participate.  During these fun activities, children are expected to gain basic knowledge about the environment and what can be done in order to protect it.  Workshops will take place at the Water Sports Center on Ada Ciganlija beach on Saturday May 10th 2014 from 11am to 3pm.

In Turkey, TEMA will organise cleaning activities on more then five cities (including Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Çanakkale, Bartın) with the collaboration of around 400 volunteers.

On 6^th of May, TACSO office in Albania organized at EU Delegation premises in Tirana a meeting with representatives from the D3 Unit at DG Enlargement in Brussels Mr. Dario di BENEDETTO, representative from EU Delegation in Tirana Mr. Stefano CALABRETTA, members of the evaluation team of FPA projects Mrs. Anne Morton HYDE (for Albania and Kosovo) and Mr. Simon FOREST (for Macedonia and Turkey) and all the NGOs implementing an FPA project in Albania, to discuss the implementation so far of their projects.

The meeting started with a short presentation of what EU is doing regarding the FPA projects and how it is going to proceed for the next two years till 2016. They stated that EU is actually finalizing the guideline for the new call for proposal for the next two years, which will be restrict open only for the ongoing 18 FPA projects. Also, lately EU has engaged an evaluation team to monitor the so far implementation of the FPA projects. The team had started their monitoring round by travelling to all FPA countries to meet with almost all NGOs implementing the FPA projects to get a better understanding on their ongoing project implementation. Two of the evaluation team members joint this meeting, while explaining their mission and informed us that we will be contacted during their second round monitoring tour on 12^th of June.

Then the representative of the D3 Unit at DG Enlargement pointed out some specific issues that all FPA projects should keep in mind, while applying for the next two year project, as: i) the budged will be reduced, probably 20% from the previous one, so CSOs should continue implementing those action which had more impact and cut the less ones; (ii) Very important issue is the extension of the partnership in all the IPA countries; (iii) and more sub-grantee schemes and capacity building instruments for the CSOs, as the FPA aim is to increase capacity building of CSOs in the region.

Then all 9 NGOs made a short presentation about their project implementation status so far.

The first photograph is from Kayseri. Here are the Young TEMA Volunteers from a cycling event. They cycle to create awareness on a more livable World.

Second photograph is from the Balıkesir University Young TEMA. They cycle to create awareness for environmentalist transportation.

The last photo of the week is from Eskisehir Young Tema. They smile in front of  Eskisehir TEMA House. This photo is from “We are pedaling to campus” event.

On 30th of April 2014, ENV.net organised a meeting with 4 organisations to which a sub-grants have been awarded in the framework of ENV.net call for proposals: “Involving citizens for a greener Europe: Small scale action scheme for the benefit of CSOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro”.

The following people participated to the meeting:

• Simona Pogliani, Federico Bastia and Eleonora Puddu, from Fondazione punto.sud (ENV.net)
• Maja Nedelkovska from Center for Media Activities (Republic of Macedonia)
• Spasoje Raicevic from Association of young ecologists of Niksic (Montenegro)
• Amra Imamović from Centre for Ecology and Energy (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
• Mitko Sopov from Environmental Association Planetum (Republic of Macedonia)

During the meeting, the sub-grantees made a presentation of their projects and their organisations and ENV.net team made a briefing on the ENV.net project objectives, results achieved and expected and on-going and future activities. Morever, before signing the Sub-grant contracts, an information session on financial and administrative issues was delivered to sub-grantees to inform them about reporting rules, eligibility of costs, possible modification to the contract, etc.

See the agenda of the meeting and the ppt presentation used by ENV.net team.

The meeting was very fruitful and we all expect to have a great collaboration with these organisations.

On April 4, 2014, ATRC organized the informational meeting with grantees for advocacy at the local level in environmental issues supported within the framework of regional ENV.Net project.

The meeting was attended by directors of beneficiary organizations and finance managers, who were informed about the procedures and forms to be used in the process of implementation and reporting.

After explaining the procedures and reporting forms distribution, representatives of each beneficiary organization and the principal of ATRC, signed contracts which endorse the start of project implementation.

Organizations and funded projects are:

1. NGO: Qendra për Politika dhe Avokim – Pristina, the project will be implemented in the municipality of Drenas and is subject to the level of air pollution from the company Feronikel,
2. NGO: With Me dore ne Zemër – Mitrovica. The project will be implemented in the municipality of Mitrovica and is subject to the impact of air pollution Trepca in Mitrovica,
3. NGO: Mileniumi i Ri. The project will be implemented in Pristina and is subject to the protection of the park is the city of Pristina from degradation and illegal construction,
4. NGO: Kosovo Advocacy and Development Center – Pristina. The project will be implemented in Pristina and is subject to sensitize the public about the risks of medical waste.

In the framework of the project “Raising public awareness about renewable energy” implemented by Aarhus Information Center in Vlora city as a sub-grant, during the month of April there was started the first phase of the project by organizing three roundtables  in cities of Saranda , Himara and Orikumi , with local decision – makers, interest groups , civil society representatives , youth , local business representatives , representatives of Citizen Advisory Committees.

More than 50 participants attended these meetings through discussing on the idea of greater development of renewable energy sources, especially investments in the field of solar panels that have a greater and faster economical and environmental impact.

As the entire south -west part of the country has more than 300 days of sunshine, local business representatives, especially those working in the field of tourism, expressed strong interest in investing on solar panels, as a necessity and a guarantee for the development of the tourism.

First photograph of the week is from TEMA İzmir Karşıyaka City Volunteer Representatives. This photo was taken at the saplings plantation event in İzmir. We see one of the Tema Kids saying “Hello” to camera with a huge smile on her face.

Second photograph is from Kayseri. Here we see Tema Youth and Tema City Representatives together at the saplings plantation event.

The last photograph of the week is from Erzurum. This photo is from Atatürk University Young Tema Organization. This frame is from the event named “Pedal to Campus” which was organized by the Young Tema of Atatürk University.