On invitation by the Council of Europe, BCSDN participated on a strategic meeting devoted to the newly adopted Council of Europe Guidelines on Civil Participation. The meeting, attended by BCSDN’s Policy and Advocacy Officer Biljana Spasovska, took place on 4th and 5th December 2017. It gathered together CSO experts from the Western Balkans and EU Neighborhood countries in order boost its dissemination and encourage widest possible use of the Guidelines. The final aim is to improve the civil participation in policy and decision making in order to further strengthen the trust in and credibility of our democratic institutions and to develop a culture of effective participation based on respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.