In the con­text of em­pow­er­ing civ­il so­ci­ety to com­ple­ment the work of the Gov­ern­ment, the Del­e­ga­tion of the Eu­ro­pean Union (EU) to Trinidad and To­ba­go host­ed an in­for­ma­tive meet­ing on Mon­day to ex­plain the ways in which non-state ac­tors (NSAs) can ac­cess EU fund­ing. Up to &eu­ro;10,000 (per ser­vice con­tract) is avail­able from the Eu­ro­pean Union to sup­port NSAs in ac­tiv­i­ties that in­clude train­ing, sem­i­nars and tech­ni­cal as­sis­tance.

Ste­lios Christopou­los, charg&ea­cute; d'af­faires of the EU del­e­ga­tion com­ment­ed about the meet­ing: "The EU recog­nis­es that the con­tri­bu­tion of NSAs is crit­i­cal to over­all de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go."There are nu­mer­ous NGO's in Trinidad and To­ba­go do­ing very good work. The aim of this meet­ing is to fur­ther sup­port the work of NSAs through EU funds." The EU is the largest donor of de­vel­op­ment as­sis­tance aid in the world. The Coto­nou Agree­ment signed be­tween the EU and African, Caribbean and Pa­cif­ic (ACP) coun­tries pro­vides for the ac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion of NSAs in EU-ACP co­op­er­a­tion.

Thir­ty five NSAs were rep­re­sent­ed at the meet­ing, dur­ing which the EU iden­ti­fied the ar­eas in which sup­port can be pro­vid­ed. These in­clude en­vi­ron­ment, crime, hu­man rights, trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty and lo­cal ad­min­is­tra­tion.The EU will be ac­cept­ing pro­pos­als for fund­ing in 2011 through Ju­ly 30. Those in­ter­est­ed in ac­cess­ing this fund­ing or learn­ing more are urged to con­tact the Del­e­ga­tion of the Eu­ro­pean Union at 622-6628 and/or vis­it the Web site http://eeas.eu­ropa.eu/del­e­ga­tions/trinidad