Projects between two partner organization – EPL (formerly NGO “Ecopravo-Lviv”) (Ukraine) and organization “Ecologistas en Accion Region Murciana (Spain) with financial support of the European Commission. Duration of the project: October 2004 – April 2005.

This project had two objectives:

- to improve institutional and organizational skills of EPL in organizing public participation campaigns;
- to improve organizational and personal skills of EPL in enforcement of environmental law.

The project envisaged two types of activities:

- Staff exchanges: from Spain to Ukraine and from Ukraine to Spain,
- Establishment and use of an e-mail discussion list.

During the project period four exchange visits were implemented - one by Spanish partners to Ukraine and three by Ukrainian partners to Spain. Our partners from Spain had a possibility to see more closely the EPL’s work. They had meetings with employees and clinic students. During the visit Eduardo Salazar and Gino Macia learnt about the most important cases where EPL participate and where people are involved, and we discussed the strategic steps that were taken and which were planned to be taken.

The visits of EPL’s people were different in according to the needs that specific staff people had. The following was accomplished during the visits to Spain: study tours to protected areas; participation in workshops; watching and discussing of use of sustentative advocacy tools; joint social events. Two EPL staff lawyers participated in a workshop on Aarhus Convention issues, prepared by Ecologistas en Accion for citizens who are involved in campaigns and students, regarding the new approach of Aarhus Convention for the public participation tools for general public. All visitors have visited the office of the Ecologistas en Accion. During the visit they met main activists of the organization, learned about main projects and methods of their work, participated in workshops and public campaigns, organized by Ecologistas en Accion during the exchange visit.

The purpose of the electronic discussion list was to provide for a continuous forum for exchange of ideas between the partner organizations. The list was also used for the preparation of all trips, including travel arrangements, agendas, etc. This also supported building personal connections between people and lead to a sustainable and close cooperation between the organizations in the future.