(European Centre for Minority Issues, Flensburg, Germany, 10-13 December 2000)

On 10-13 December 2000, the first meeting of the NGO Roundtable was held in Flensburg in a spirit of constructive co-operation.
All those present at that meeting (see List of Participants attached) expressed their unanimous support for the aims of the Stability Pact for South East Europe and their willingness to collaborate with one another in support of these aims.
Furthermore, the participants call upon the Participating States of the Stability Pact to consider the possibility of setting up effective channels of communication and appropriate mechanisms of consultation which will enable NGOs and civil society from South East Europe to have direct access to the Stability Pact and especially to Working Table 1 on Human Rights and Democratization.
The Macedonian NGOs present at the roundtable embraced the following principles and plan of action, to be developed further at a follow-on meeting:

1. The NGO community plays a crucial role in the retrenchment of democracy, human rights, social and economic development and justice in South Eastern Europe. The NGO Roundtable serves to assist NGOs to exercise that role in accordance with the principles of tolerance, mutual trust, effectiveness and transparency.

2. The NGO Roundtable will establish a structure to assist NGOs in generating projects formulated in line with these principles. Inter-ethnic cooperation towards these aims is particularly encouraged.

3. The ECMI Facilitators will, in close cooperation with a local project partner, establish an electronic network for consultation among member NGOs and a web-based resource centre for cooperative project development.

4. ECMI will also make provision for direct assistance to member NGOs in their drafting of project proposals through its own staff and through the establishment of links to funding agencies, including the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe.
5. In addition to NGOs present at the first roundtable meeting, others will be invited to contribute to the follow-on process, to be arranged at the second meeting of the roundtable, to be held in the Republic of Macedonia in April 2001.

Flensburg, Germany, 5 February 2001