The title of the 5th Forum Decentralised Cooperation Romania Belgium “25 years of commitment, dedication and engagement; 10 years of decentralised cooperation” clearly underlines the long tradition of collaboration between civil society organisations and public authorities from both countries.
During the historical round table on Thursday November 5, 2015, the three volumes about ‘175 years of diplomatic relations between Belgium and Romania’, written by former Belgian Ambassador in Romania Philippe Beke, will be presented. Also some other lectures will give an insight in this not so very well know common histories between both countries. In the afternoon an exhibition about the famous Belgian comic hero Nero will be opened. This event is followed by the plenum on economic collaboration. During this plenum opportunities will be explored on the economical field. On Friday the Forum starts with some reflections on the Europe 2020 strategy and how this ambitious aims can be localized. Specific attention will go to the regional differences in reaching these goals. Further building on these concepts, umbrella organizations will discuss how local authorities can implement the international and European goals. The ideas developed during the morning plenary sessions will be further explored during the workshops in the afternoon sessions of Friday November 6, 2015. To give participants the opportunity to have an in depth discussion during the workshops, each workshop will be held in two sessions of 1.5 hour each. But the focus of one session can be different so that a switch between workshops is still possible.Besides, members of parliament from both countries will gather to talk about the relations between parliaments from both countries, the trend towards regionalisation and working programs between both countries. On Saturday November 7, 2015 the conclusions will be presented as a 2 year working agenda 2015-2017.