News

Tesco's "You choose, we help" community grant program has been launched for the third time in cooperation with the Hungarian Donors Forum and the Ökotárs.

The director of Ökotárs participated as an expert at the workshop organized by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency to discuss the preliminary findings of the agency's - since then published - report on the state and the challenges of civil society in the Union.

After 2016, NIOK Foundation again awarded the Civil Prize to acknowledge and promote the most successful Hungarian civil society organizations and their projects. The director of Ökotárs contributed to the evaluation of candidates as a member of the expert jury.

Together with many other civil society organizations, Ökotárs participated at the session of the Parliament's Justice Committee, expressing our protest against the law on "foreign-funded organizations" with a silent demonstration and a press conference.

Central and Southeastern European civil society organizations participating in the joint Nuclear Risk and Public Control project met in Linz (Austria) this year to discuss regional challenges related to the use of nuclear energy and to develop their work plan for the year.

For the second time this year, Ökotárs experts participated in the management of Tesco's small grant announced "You choose, we help".

"The bill submitted to the parliament is misleading, disingenuous and hypocritical. It is misleading because civic organizations are already a hundred times more transparent than any government procurement process. It is disingenuous because it serves only one purpose: to stigmatize and expel organizations that dare raise their voices and who do not accept the fact that things are going in the wrong direction. And it is hypocritical: the state receives support from abroad too, without which we would already be in bankruptcy." - the director of Ökotárs also spoke at the demonstration of tens of thousands protesting against the law on "foreign-funded organizations".

The two-day event in the European Youth Center in Budapest was the final act of the more than four-year long program, and consisted of a "Hungarian" and an "international" day.

In late 2016, the evaluation committee composed of Ökotárs experts and MOL representatives approved 47 project ideas submitted to the grant program announced for the 11th year. Of these, 37 sent in a detailed project plan aiming at the creation or rehabilitation of community green spaces - parks, gardens, yards - through a voluntary community effort. 25 of them - 22 community park and 3 condominium gardens - received support, totalling 48,000 €.

In this year's European Year Tree contest, a total of 125,568 people cast their votes in February.