Newly established Croatian Platform for International Citizen Solidarity (CROSOL) has organized first public presentation event with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in Zagreb on 7th of May 2014 . Event was hosted by the president of the CROSOL Board Gordan Bosanac and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia, mrs. Vesna Pusić.
Mrs. Pusić has explained why it is necessary for her Ministry to cooperate with NGOs – because of the efficiency, joint resources, combined experiences and knowledge, and because states sometimes cannot act on their own (for example during conflict). When it comes to solidarity and correction of inequality, Croatia has been at the both sides of table – it was recieving help, and today it is in a position to give help. International citizen solidarity is important because it develops good relationships between the states, but also builds connections between societies. It changes the way individuals view the society. We should ask ourselves what is our guideline: „Greed is good or solidarity is good?“. Solidarity is a two way street, because it makes people better.
In 2013. Croatia has doubled the help it gives, compared to 2012. It helps the most with improving the life of women and girls, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syria, Palestina, Yordan, Marocco, Tunis, Afghanistan, Angola, Burma and Mianmar.
President of the Managing Board of the Platform, Gordan Bosanac, started the presentation by explaining the path that led to the foundation of the Platform. Now that it has been founded, the Platform should and will cooperate with Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs because that cooperation can be fruitful. The strenght of this Platform lies in the number of its members – they give the Platform variety of programs, projects and ideas that can be even better implemented trough cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.
He explained why the Platform must be included in other networks and platforms, for example Concord – European confederation of Relief and Development NGOs. As a support to that announcement, Concord made a welcoming video to CROSOL.
After the CONCORD video, there was a discussion about the possible future projects of the Platform. It has been said that the help for BIH must be given to all three ethnicities.
When it comes to the type of help, it was concluded that the EU should give help in order to develop a certain country or area, not just the kind of help that builds concrete walls that are not sustainable.
OCDs also gave advices to the Ministry regarding post2015 millenium goals.
