History

In 2010 Conference on Sustainable Energy in Skopje, where 23 representatives gathered from South East Europe NGOs which work on sustainable energy, SEENET (South East Europe Network on Energy and Transport) was founded with the aim to coordinate the work of advocacy CSOs in the Western Balkan region on energy and transport issues.
First meeting on the Solar Academy on the island Šolta in Croatia, which later became an annual and representative for the network, was held in 2010 as first Regional seminar on «Sustainable energy potentials in the region».
In 2011 the second SEENET Conference was held, with 46 participants (number doubled since the first year) where it was stated SEENET shares a vision of a prosperous South East Europe with the goal of mostly locally owned and managed renewable energy sources. Due to its rich natural and human resources, the region presents a showcase for the transition of the energy and transport sectors to environmentally and socially sustainable ones.
In 2013 SEENET network began a ETNAR project Advocacy NGOs networks for sustainable use of energy and natural resources in the Western Balkans and Turkey – ETNAR which was funded by the IPA Civil Society Program of the European Union. The project was active from four year, organised in two rounds.
In 2014 on the annual meeting on Šolta the scope of the network was expanded to include work on natural resources, as a logical and organic part of the activities of the network.
After Balkan was hit, in 2014, by the heaviest rains and floods in more than a century, ETNAR partners and sub-grantees reacted promptly and stood in solidarity with people in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jagoda Munic, ETNAR project coordinator underlined that ETNAR project is “an example of successful cooperation in the region in order to help non-governmental organizations to better respond to problems in the society. Common action in the field of environmental protection is of vital importance, as we demonstrated in our rapid response to flooding in the region.”
Throughout the years SEENET held many seminars, regional training, meetings, webinars and conferences for their members in order to improve the capacities of regional NGOs and enhance their cooperation. Sections and topics ranged from environmental advocacy, policy analysis, environmental law, legal protection to nature protection, planing and conducting campaigns, new energy strategies, preservation of rivers and many more.
Seenet network also produced many position papers where members summed their work and analysis to help other organizations in South East Europe in matters important for the whole region.

Vision

We share a vision of a prosperous South East Europe in which natural resources are managed in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, and fossil fuels and nuclear energy have been phased out before mid-century.

Mission

The mission of the network is to provide a platform for co-operation of environmental CSOs on the regional level, and to mobilise other sectors of civil society in achieving our vision. Primarily through advocacy activities, our members will work on accelerating the transformation towards an environmentally and socially sustainable region.