Editorial Note

Lars Josephsen, Editor

Welcome to the second issue of Civil Society and New Forms of Governance in Europe, the Newsletter for CINEFOGO Network of Excellence. The Newsletter offers surveys of CINEFOGO's activities, and it serves as a platform for dialogue and debate with the Network's stakeholders and the general public, as well as being a communication instrument for the Network itself.

CINEFOGO partners, scholars and other interested institutions, networks and individuals are invited to visit CINEFOGO's digital highway at www.cinefogo.org. Here you will find more detailed and regularly updated reports on the progress and results of Network's Joint Programme of Activities, and other relevant information. The Network participants as well as external stakeholders are urged to contribute to the European debate on Civil Society and New Forms of Governance through the two channels: CINEFOGO Newsletter and CINEFOGO digital highway.

The CINEFOGO Network's first year. The Network has now been in function one year. The build-up of internal and external relations and communication structures at institutional and personal levels is settled, and administrative procedures for running the entire Network are in place. The work package teams are in full activity, and the CINEFOGO's website facilitates the exchange of information and skills between working groups and individual scholars within and outside the Network. Read more in sections 2 and 3.

New managing director for the Network. In July 2006, Inger Vibeke Dorph replaced Annali Kristiansen as managing director of the CINEFOGO Network. We welcome Inger Vibeke in her new capacity, and look forward for a fruitful cooperation. We also wish to convey warm thanks to Annali Kristiansen for her great contribution in the first intense period of the project, and we send her our best wishes to accomplish new tasks at the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

New features at the Network's website. At this place we would like to draw the attention to a new facility in connection to the website: Whenever new information is transferred to the CINEFOGO website from the CINEFOGO secretariat, be it an event or news of another character, each member of the CINEFOGO Network will receive a notification on this. Please let us know if this procedure does not function in a satisfactory way for you. Concerning the activities related to the PhD network, a special place at the website is under development.

Debate on European Democracy and Active Citizenship. The Newsletter continues its open-eye function concerning work of other institutions and networks (cf. section 9), and public debates in the EU with regard to CINEFOGO related questions . Thus in this issue the reader will find an article by Carlo Ruzza and Cristiano Bee reflecting on 'the European Commission approaches to civil society and communication', inspired by the speech by EU Commission's Vice President Margot Wallström, we brought in the first issue of the Newsletter. Furthermore we bring an essay by Adalbert Evers on 'Active Citizenship in Europe: A difficult topic' (cf. sections 7 and 8).