The participation to EU programming within the structural funds presents one of better examples of implementation of the principle of partnership, which should help assert NGOs as an equal partner in the dialogue with the Government - in preparing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the Operational Plans. NGOs were directly involved in the programming phase through elaborating suggested sub-programmes of the priority orientation of Promotion of the development of NGOs, Civil and Social dialogue.  Through the project of Identification of Target Projects for Co-funding the NGO sector from the EU Structural Funds in the 2007-2013 period, implemented by CNVOS, 61 project outlines were received, that were identified by NGOs as pivotal for the sector's development. This set of proposals provided the guidelines for the Ministry of Public Administration when preparing the call for projects.

What is more, in the period 2007-2013, Structural Funds were made available to NGOs, for the specific purpose of promotion of the development of NGOs and Civil dialogue. Resources will be allocated for: improvement of the staff structure and capacity of the employed in the NGO sector; development and functioning of the NGO networks according to priority areas; support for programmes for the strengthening civil and social dialogue and support for projects of promotion of NGO sector and good practices. Furthermore, NGOs have their representatives in the Monitoring Committees for the three OPs.

In November 2002, CNVOS started developing the Procedure for selection of NGO’s representatives, which would assure transparent procedure of how the representatives of NGOs can be included into different bodies involved in policy and decision-making process. Up until now, CNVOS is the only organization that provides this service among NGOs. The purpose of the selection procedure is to offer all interested individuals and organizations a unified procedure with clear rules, binding for all involved and according to principle of openness, equal opportunities and transparency.

Until now, CNVOS has carried out more than 16 selection procedures, including for: Working Group for monitoring the execution of National action plan on social inclusion 2004 – 2006 (Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Affairs); Working Group for preparation of National action plan on social inclusion (Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Affairs); Monitoring Committee for the EQUAL initiative (Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Affairs); European Economic and Social Committee - EESC (Government Office for European Affairs); Supervisory Committee for Operational Programme for development of human resources for the period 2007 – 2013 (Government Office for Local-Self-government and Regional Policy).

Cooperation with the Parliament:

One of the newest initiatives of the Slovenian NGOs are focused on development of more systematic cooperation with the National Assembly and its committees – but no progress has been made yet. As it is, the sessions of assembly are open to the public and the web-site contains a special sub-section entitled Dialogue, with the list of current public hearings.

The National Council, on the other hand, has developed more continuous cooperation with a civil society. Every year the National Council organizes numerous conferences, public speaking events and roundtables; these are attended by representatives of various organizations, societies and specialist institutions.

Political Parties:

There are some cases of strong collaboration (for example between the party ZARES and association Sunflower in the area of– but generally speaking, most NGO are avoiding being ‘contaminated’ by such affiliation.