CEE Trust begins year-long debate on democratization

Commemorations are generally as much about investing efforts in the future as about paying respect to significant events in the past, and this is true of the year-long discussion about the current state, achievements, and future of civil society in the region initiated by the Trust for Civil Society in Central & Eastern Europe (the CEE Trust). The Civil Society Forum will mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and will culminate in an international conference in September 2009. It has grown out of a concern about the widening gap between the general and undisputed commitment to democracy and the mass (self) exclusion of citizens from the democratic process.