IKV organised a meeting to introduce its project, funded under Grant Scheme for Civil Society Support II (CSSP II), entitled “Improving the Influence Capacity of Civil Society Sector in EU Accession Process-INFL(EU)NCE” on 8 October 2019 in Istanbul. The project brings 40  CSO representatives from 4 different Turkish cities; Adana, Ankara, Istanbul and Trabzon together to enhance their policy influencing capacity and legislative knowledge in regard to Turkey-EU Accession Negotiations. The launch event hosted along with the 40 pre-selected CSO representatives, participants from academia, grassroots CSOs and general public.

In the opening speech of the event, IKV's work on civil society has been introduced by IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu. Laura Fallavollita, Head of Fundamental Rights and Civil Society Programme of the EU Delegation to Turkey, and Bülent Özcan, Acting Director-General for Financial Cooperation and Project Implementation at Directorate for EU Affairs of Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs both introduce the work of Turkey and the EU on strengthening the capacity of civil society.

Afterwards, the second session of the meeting continued with a panel to expand the discussions to the role of civil society on Turkey’s EU accession process.  Prof. Erhan Doğan, Deputy Head of the Political Science and International Relation Department at Marmara University, Asst. Prof. Büke Boşnak, from Istanbul Bilgi University Department of International Relations and Demir Murat Seyrek, Senior Advisor to the European Foundation for Democracy, shared their views on the subject during the panel moderated by IKV Secretary General Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas.