OUTCOMES OF THE BIRDLIFE EUROPEAN AND CENTRAL ASIAN PARTNERSHIP MEETING 14TH TO 16TH APRIL 2011 IN BUDAPEST

29 Partners, 3 Partners Designate and 3 Affiliates as well as representatives of organizations from 4 othercountries were meeting in Budapest.

The EPM was organized by MME/BirdLife Hungary in an excellent way and the participants were thanking Gergo Halmos and his team warmly. The traditional Partnership Fair was opened by the Hungarian State Secretary for Environmental Affairs Zoltan Illes and showed the high diversity of the activities and of the materials produced by the Partnership.

For the first time, the newly formed BirdLife Region Europe and Central Asia was meeting together. The Central Asian new Affiliates made an impressive presentation of their region and of their work and were warmly welcomed.

The main task of the meeting was to prepare the new programme for the region. In a first phase, the participants discussed the changes proposed by the Global Secretariat for the new BirdLife Strategy, mainly the change from "habitats" to "sustainability". On this subject the Partners expressed mixed feelings and alternatives to such a change were proposed. The main lines of the programme were discussed in detail in 9 thematic sessions on the following subjects: Conservation priorities; Branding and visibility; Involving young people; Marine programme; Working with the corporate sector; Increasing the membership base; BirdLife International - FACE agreement; Joint fundraising BirdLife - Partners; Challenges and opportunities of a broad Partnership.

The results will now be used for the development of the Programme 2013-onwards by the EDO and the European and Central Asian Committee (EC). The draft will be discussed and actions will be prioritized atthe next EPM and submitted to the Partnership for written comments before it will be endorsed in 2013.

During the three business meetings between the thematic sessions the Partnership took the followingdecisions:

- The report of the European and Central Asian Committee 2008-2011 was accepted.

- The revised European and Central Asian Guidelines were adopted.

- One new representative of the region in the Global Council was elected: Luis Costa (SPEA, Portugal), and three new members of the European and Central Asian Committee were elected: Elena D'Andrea (LIPU, Italy), Izabela Flor (OTOP, Poland), Xenophon Kappas (HOS, Greece). As planned for a long time Werner Muller stepped down as chair and the new EC elected Xenophon Kappas as the new chair. Together with the elected members of the Global Council Werner Muller (SVS/BirdLife Switzerland) and Fred Wouters (VBN, The Netherland) and the representative of the "large organization" Tim Stowe (RSPB, UK) the EC 2011-2013 is composed as follows: Xenophon Kappas (chair), Elena D'Andrea, Luis Costa, Izabela Flor, Werner Muller, Tim Stowe, Fred Wouters

- The next EPM will be held on 25-28 April 2012 in England with business and thematic sessions on the first two days (Wednesday and Thursday), followed by a visit to BirdLife International in Cambridge and RSPB in Sandy on Friday and an excursion on Saturday. Thanks to the RSPB for this invitation.

- The following EPM will be held before the Global Partnership Meeting (18-22 June 2013, Canada) on 17 June 2013 in Ottawa.