The European Union (hereinafter EU) is holding a summit on the Balkans, which is to take place in Sarajevo, on the 2nd June 2010. The summit should bring together the Balkan countries and  the EU high level representatives in order to confirm the EU’s commitment to the Western Balkans.

Using this opportunity, the civil society organizations from the region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), with the support of the Open Society Insitute offices in these countries, have prepared a Statement of the Western Balkan Civil Society, which insists on reaffirmation of the EU enlargement policy in the Western Balkans.

The statement will be presented at a press conference in Sarajevo, on Monday, 1 June 2010, on the eve of the EU-Balkan summit.

EXPEDITIO is one of the signatories of this Statement.

The text of the Statement can be downloaded here.

During May, EXPEDITIO joined the coalition “Together for LGBT Rights”. The leaders of this project are the NGOs Juventas and Monitoring Centre from Podgorica. The main goal of the project is to promote and support LGBT people’s human rights in Montenegro. Our organization will be active within the activity Public Advocacy Campaign and we will try to assist in the work of the Coalition with our knowledge and experience, whereby we want to contribute to improving the rights of sexual minorities and human rights in general in Montenegro.

This project is funded by the European Union, managed by the European Union Delegation to Montenegro and implemented by Youth Cultural Center Juventas.
Ovaj projekat je finansiran od strane Evropske Unije, posredstvom delegacije Evropske Unije u Crnoj Gori , a sprovodi ga Omladinski Kulturni Centar Juventas.

On 19 May 2010, in Igalo, a Partner Search Forum was held under the IPA Cross-Border Programme Croatia - Montenegro funded by the European Commission. Representatives of Expeditio attended the forum because we are interested in establishing partnerships with colleagues from Croatia, in order to apply jointly with projects of cross-border cooperation between Croatia and Montenegro. All potential partners, who are interested in the topics of our activity (spatial planning and management, sustainable architecture, cultural heritage ...) and willing to cooperate with us, can contact us on e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or telephone +382 32 302 520 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +382 32 302 520 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

On April 23-25, 2010, the eighth meeting of the SEE Heritage Network was held in Rijeka, Croatia. The meeting was organized by the NGO Pro Torpedo - Association for the Promotion and Preservation of Industrial Heritage of Rijeka, which is one of the SEE Heritage Network members. The meeting focused on the theme of industrial heritage of Southeastern Europe and it was held in parallel with the Fourth International Conference on Industrial Heritage organized by Pro Torpedo.

For the purpose of the conference, the SEE Heritage Network members have prepared posters featuring the industrial heritage of their countries.

The meeting was funded by the foundation Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB).

Additional information about the meeting, together with its report will be posted soon.

Comments on the Draft Detailed Spatial Plan (DSP) for the area of multiple reservoirs on the Morača River and the Draft Report on Strategic Environmental Assessment of this plan were submitted to the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment of Montenegro.

The comments can be downloaded here

We support all the activities undertaken by the NGO Green Home in connection with the construction of hydropower plants on the Morača River.

Enclosed is a map of the planned accumulation reservoirs, on whose cross-section it is possible to see the actual size/height of dams (construction height).

Read more here www.pametuglavu.me

NGO GreenHome Podgorica

Currently, an assessment of the cultural landscape of Boka Kotorska and the area of Kotor on the UNESCO's World Heritage List is conducted by the Regional Institute for Heritage Protection from Kotor. The coordinator of this activity is Ms. Katri Lisitzin, a cultural landscape expert from Sweden. The assessment of the cultural landscape will be done by a local team, one of whose members is a representative of EXPEDITIO.

Work Your Talk: A Sharing Session on Participatory Architectural Practices is a sharing session that is part of the Public Occasion Agency series of events. This event, hosted at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London will bring together five community driven architectural groups from three different continents through an online conference. The session will allow participants - Expeditio (Montenegro), re:ACT (Singapore), Claudia Amico from Espacio Expresion (Peru), Maya Ballen from (Y)NCLUYE (Peru) and Juan Sebastian Bustamante Fernandez & Natalia Castanho Cardenas from Medellin La Mas Educada (Colombia) - to exchange ideas between their different modes of participatory operations in different localities and contexts.

Manastirski kompleks Sveta gora na Atosu, na poluostrvu Halkidik u Grčkoj, već vekovima pleni pažnju duhovnika, ljudi posvećenih veri, ali i kulturi, prosveti, nauci i umetnosti. Poslednjih decenija tu se sve češće sreću i turisti sa raznih strana sveta, koje Sveta gora privlači iskonskim mirom, nataloženom patinom minulih vekova i magijskom snagom ambijenta u kome je sve, pa i masivne kamene zidine kojima su srednjovekovni hramovi okruženi, prožeto duhovnošću i natopljeno istorijom.... Hilandar, putopis

Da ,,ravno Kosovo" nije samo zatalasana ravnica, kao što su to prostori na južnom obodu Ibra i u širokom pojasu Sitnice, lako se uveriti ako dođete na Novo Brdo, nekada dobro utvrđeni grad iz vremena kralja Milutina, koji je podignut na hiljadu i 124 metra nadmorske visine. Novo Brdo nalazi se oko 40 kilometara jugoistočno od Prištine, na jednoj od najviših kota Velike planine. U vreme kada su Priština, Podujevo, Gnjilane, Uroševac i neki drugi kosovski gradovi bili tek mala naselja, Novo Brdo je slovilo kao najveće i najznačajnijerudarsko i trgovačko središte na Balkanu....Novo Brdo, putopis

"Босански човек не гази по земљи него по слојевима изумрлих култура. Он у своју колибу узиђује камен из римског храма, а своје двориште прекрива плочама некадашњих друмова... Запустели градови по бреговима пунили су се стравичним звуцима ветрова и огртали косама дивљег зеленила. Успомену на њихове господаре, босанске краљеве и властелу, затирала су мучна времена заједно са околним становништвом које је могло да чува традицију. И тако је народ те замкове све више насељавао и све их више уплитао у приче, изазване чудесним и страшним изгледом рушевина, а не сећањем на њихове некадашње становнике. Тако се гасила успомена на стару средњовековну Босну..."

Thinking about what to write about Brno, a city in the south of the Czech Republic, which this year I visited twice, I realized that whatever I write will not be enough to express what I felt when I researched and learned about the history and qualities of Brno. Every student of architecture, and even those who have not studied architecture, but they had "really lucky" to know someone who has studied, can say that the first association that comes in your head when someone mentions Brno, is Tugendhat Villa of German architect and one of the founders and leaders of modern Europe, Mies van der Rohe ...

Odavno sam nešto obećao, ima tome evo već godina i nešto, i evo došlo je vreme da obećanje i ispunim, govoreći o mestu u kome sam proveo godinu dana. Razlog zašto se ranije nisam oglasio jeste da najpre nisam poznavao stvari dovoljno, a kada sam ih upoznao, već je bilo kasno, jer sam izgubio svaki kritički stav i sopstvenu objektivnost. Isto kao što pišući i govoreći o Beogradu, u kome sam rođen i odrastao, ne mogu da budem objektivan, tako ni o Bratislavi, u kojoj sam proveo godinu dana, ne mogu da budem objektivan. Nadam se da cu uspeti da zadržim ipak neki stepen pristojnosti i da će ovaj moj putopis uspeti da vas natera da razmislite o tome da posetite ovaj grad, koji, generalno gledano, i nije predaleko od ovih naših krajeva...

On 23 December 2009, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Ministry for Spatial Planning and Environment and non-governmental organizations. On that occasion, a Working Group responsible for concrete application of the signed document was formed.

On December 11, 2009, a constitutive session of the National Council for Sustainable Development in new composition was held, which is the result of the implemented reforms of the Council. The newly formed Council has 23 members who represent different social structures - government, local governments, business community, NGOs, academic sector and independent experts. The President of the Council is Prime Minister Milo Đukanović.

The session discussed a draft of the Second annual report on the implementation of the National strategy of sustainable development of Montenegro, which presented activities implemented by the relevant departments, provided a general evaluation of the sustainability of the development of Montenegro and gave recommendations for further implementation of the Strategy. It was concluded that it was necessary to improve the methodology of monitoring the implementation of the National strategy of sustainable development, to begin the revision of the Action Plan and Strategy in the coming period and to strengthen the system of sustainable development indicators. The draft report was adopted and it will be sent to the Government for consideration, together with comments and conclusions agreed by the Council.

At the session, the Council's Rules of Procedure was adopted, which precisely defines the responsibilities and the rules of operation of the Council. The Rules of Procedure stipulates that the Council sessions should be convened at least three times a year and that the continuity of its wours should be ensured through establishment and operation of working groups for specific areas, which would improve the efficiency of the Council's work.

The work of the Office for Sustainable Development for the year 2009 was also presented at the session. It was proposed that the first regular session of the Council should be held as early as mid January next year, at which a plan of the Council's work for 2010 should be determined.

EXPEDITIO representative is a member of the National Council for Sustainable Development.

Dear SEE Heritage friends, we are preparing a new SEE calendar for 2010, similar to the one we made last year. We think that it was a good and nice PR material for our Network, and that it will be good to have it this year, as well.

Last week, on November 27, 2009, a representative of EXPEDITIO participated in the conference titled ''Youth Participation in Montenegro - Challenges and Opportunities'', which was held in the Assembly Hall of the Municipality of Kotor, in Bizanti Palace in the Old Town. The conference is a part of the campaign on youth participation, which is conducted within the project ''Social Empowerment of Young People''. The project is implemented in partnership between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Media of Montenegro and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and was financially supported by the Italian Government.

On November 29, 2009, EXPEDITIO representatives organized a presentation about the activities of NGOs in Montenegro for the students of architecture and urban planning from the Polis University of Tirana and conservation students from the University of Gothenburg. The presentation was held in the Assembly Hall of the Municipality of Kotor in Bizanti Palace.

You can read Expeditio comments on "Draft of the Law on voluntary work" here . Comments were delivered to NGO ADP Zid from Podgorica on November 23, 2009.

EXPEDITIO representative participated in the workshop "Implementation of the European Landscape Convention in Montenegro – Landscape and Spatial / Urban Planning", organized by the Ministry for Spatial Planning and Environment of Montenegro and GTZ and held in Podgorica on November 16 and 17, 2009.

Through exchanging experiences of the implementation of the European Landscape Convention at regional and European levels , the workshop aimed at reviewing three key policies: protection, management and planning, and also two special measures for the implementation of this Convention: training-education and awareness raising.

We would like to ask all of you who live in the Prokletije area or you who know, visit or love this area to help us by completing a QUESTIONNAIRE on cultural heritage of the area.

The questionnaire is part of the "Assessment of Cultural Heritage in the Prokletije Area " conducted by EXPEDITIO. EXPEDITIO was commissioned by SNV – the Natherlands Development Organisation to conduct the assessment in the period September-December 2009 . The assessment is implemented within the project "Protection and enhancement of rural communities and their traditional landscape by strengthening environmental management in the trans-boundary protected areas of the Dinaric mountain range" which is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and implemented by IUCN, WWF and SNV. Additional information about the project can be found here.

On Friday, 6^th of November 2009, Adrienne Blattel, our volunteer from Canada, presented the country from which she's coming. The presentation was held at EXPEDITIO premises in Kotor.

The assessment of cultural heritage in the area of Prokletije is implemented within the project "Protection and enhancement of rural communities and their traditional landscape by strengthening environmental management in the trans-boundary protected areas of the Dinaric mountain range" which is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and implemented by IUCN, WWF and SNV.

In its 2009 programme the Architekturzentrum Wien focuses on the Balkans. After the very successful exhibition about Bogdan Bogdanović the Architekturzentrum Wien shows "Balkanology. New Architecture And Urban Phenomena in Southeast Europe". In the accompanying programme, the 17. Wiener Architektur Kongress will also deal with this topic.

Expeditio has had a new volunteer from Canada, Adrienne Blattel, since September 4, 2009. Adrienne works for an organisation called the Quebec-Labrador Foundation (QLF) as the Associate Director of their Northern Gulf Culture and Heritage Program. Adrienne will be with us for 3 months and will assist with programs related to cultural heritage. Adrienne is thrilled to be discovering Kotor and Montenegro for the first time, and is already greatly enjoying her time learning from Expeditio's experiences. For more information about QLF and Adrienne, please consult: www.qlf.org

Dear friends, we are currently working on a new website for Expeditio. We will need a few more days to complete preparation and testing of the site, so please be patient if not all of the features have been configured. We hope you will like the new site. Thank you.

EXPEDITIO - Center for Sustainable Spatial Development is socially engaged practice active in the field of architecture and urban planning since 1997. It is NGO based in Kotor (Montenegro), founded by six students of architecture at the University of Belgrade. EXPEDITIO has implemented more than 100 projects and activities addressing various issues of sustainable spatial development, such as: urban and rural planning and management, cultural heritage and landscape, sustainable cities, public spaces, green/energy efficient architecture etc.

Enclosed you can read Expeditio's semi-annual report on our work accomplished between February and August 2009. To read the report, which is in pdf format, please click here (pfd)

The Austrian organization proHolz Steiermark from Graz organized, in cooperation with Expeditio, an expert excursion “Eco-houses in Styria” for Montenegrin construction firms and professionals in the fields of architecture and construction (architects, civil and mechanical engineers, etc.). More information here (pdf)

Contact:
Klemen Klemenak
Holzcluster Steiermark GmbH
Reininghausstraße 13a
8020 Graz

Tel.: +43(0316)58 78 50-21
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.holzcluster-steiermark.at