The Working Group EPAN (Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood) met at the beginning of October under the auspices of TRIALOG. The Working Group Meeting gathered representatives of the three subgroups and of TRIALOG (South, East and Pre-Accession partnerships) and discussed the progress undertaken so far, the following steps and the possible challenges in 2011. A focal point of the discussion was the link between EPAN activities and next year’s Hungarian and Polish Presidency of the EU.

The Pre-Accession subgroup outlined the progress made in 2010 with regard to the information sharing process between the members of the subgroup. Next year, it is intended to enhance the engagement of the grass root level organizations in Pre-Accession countries and to strengthen the participation of members from Turkey, Macedonia and Croatia as well as Iceland. The subgroup concluded that it is important to increase the development capacities of the so-called Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA)-countries and their capacity to absorb funding.

The WG EPAN brings together representatives from across Europe. Long-established organizations from EU member states, newer member states and candidate countries are all represented within the group, which is convened by TRIALOG, a project to reinforce the role of development NGOs in the enlarged EU.