Date: 16 April, 2010 - 17 April, 2010

Venue: Panorama Hotel, Vilnius

16-17 April 2010 Vilnius will host the Baltic Sea NGO Forum. The NGO Forum will host around 300 hundred participants from all countries belonging to the Council of the Baltic Sea States: Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Sweden.

The event is organised under the Lithuanian Presidency at the Council of the Baltic Sea States.

The NGO Forum of the Baltic Sea Region is organised in Lithuania for the first time. It is one of the biggest events taking place this spring for non-governmental organisations to address topical issues of the sector, in particulars the building of civil society, the strengthening of democracy and future developments of CSOs.

The NGO forums were initiated by the Baltic Sea NGO Platform in 2001 and are held annually in the presiding countries of the Council. In 2008 the forum was organised in Riga (Latvia) and in 2009 in Elsinore (Denmark). Next year it will be hosted by Norway which takes over from Lithuania the Presidency at the Council of the Baltic Sea States.