Boris Sustarsic – Slovene National Council of Disabled People's Organizations Without EU membership, politicians would cut accession to lots of funds Katerina Bogoeva Boris Sustarcic, as a representative of the Slovene National Council of Disabled People's Organizations was a guest at one of the panels at the NGO Fair in Skopje, where he shared his experience about the way of getting and receiving funds from the games of chance in that country. He is also a member of the main board of the European Disability Forum. How specific is the Slovene experience in allocation of funds from the lottery in terms of the other countries and what did you point out to the civil society organizations in Macedonia? I understand that direct copy of other’s experiences is probably very difficult, but I would like to point out that Macedonia, just like Slovenia, comes from the same former country of Yugoslavia, where at the beginning of the ‘70s in the last century there was decentralization of lottery. It was then when Slovenia decided to use that money only for the needs of disabled people’s organizations, humanitarian and sports organizations. In the other republics the practice was to use such funds occasionally for sports needs and I do not know Macedonia’s practice in details. After the breakdown of SFRY, there were differences in division of the social ownership in that field. In principle, the games of chance are state monopoly in all social systems, whatever the ownership of performers of games of chance is and it is controlled by some regulations, through concession. Macedonia must control all the games through concessions, but the question is how, what content with. The essential question is whether the Macedonian state takes enough care the games of chance to have some justification by creating a certain fund of assets for voluntary goals: humanitarian, disabled people, sports etc. State lottery has again been formed in Slovenia and so far it has been well-regulated, which shows that the state has kept the money for charity. However, in practice, lately we have had some difficulties, because foreign performers want to get to the Slovene market at any cost and it is very interesting that the state offers them the same conditions as well as to the domestic producers that have resulted from the former state ownership, but they do not want to accept it. As there is not a good legal regulation, the performer enters the market in a criminal way and steals the money from the state and consumers of that money. Now Slovenia amends the existing law in that field and it will probably regulate it in 2008. I would like to point out that you should convince Macedonian authorities not to put such money in the state budget as it is low profiled, filled with development energy and people can use it for what they really need. For example, if a civil society organization needs a chair, members will buy or pay an expert necessary for an activity etc. And when you want to get such money from the state budget, it is much harder, as it is high profiled. If it gets at the social arena, they are usually allocated at a competition and only a small number of organizations can use it. Second drawback is that it is usually then (done by the foreigners in our former countries) when money is used in a project way, through a project which is carried out for two-three years and which might end. In the regions where there are certain humanitarian organizations (as we live as disabled people for 24 hours), financing has to be stable and not realized in a project way. I am a member of the main board of the European Disability Forum which mainly implements the European disability policy and according to which every country has to provide basic funds from a public source. I think that for these countries it is really the best source.   Tell us more about fundraising in Slovenia since the beginning of the ‘90s by now?   It has been very difficult. The more developed a country is, the harder it is and when Macedonia becomes more developed in 10 to 20 years, there will be more articulated public interests. Due to this, everything was difficult in our country. I always answer these questions frankly, that the state has been inclined, kinds to us only as we, disabled people, have been capable of convincing it. We have not used any strikes, but arguments; we have influenced political parties, proved to the politicians that it is useful for the whole society, not only for the population, but partially for the interest of the whole country. Eventually, the state is however interested in working on more social issues (in spite of the fact that lots of officials and politicians are not aware of it) and the successful work with disabled and humanitarian organizations is an ideal situation as a lot of energy is engaged through them, lots of creative potentials of the population that the official state can never engage. Now the EU is stimulating that and the state systematically supports them, because it is useful for it.   What have you done more precisely?   We went to the Parliament. In 1996 I was personally a member of the state council and I used my position, I skillfully helped with the procedures. And now, when the state wanted to make certain unfavorable changes for us, we collected 67.000 signatures from citizens that were against it and we showed that it was people will, not only of disabled people. They tried to reduce the amount of money for disabled people and our influence, but we, ever since the time of former Yugoslavia, have been practicing disabled people always to be in majority in the organs that decide on the money from the games of chance. We have kept it now, but the state wanted to equal representatives of the disabled people’s and humanitarian organizations, to take away part of the funds from us.   Are there any visible changes regarding disabled people’s organizations after the EU accession?   It is a really complicated question as the EU coordinates a lot of things and puts them on a high level, but social rights are the only uncoordinated. It is a matter of national states and there is not any transfer in that area. In practice we should expect that with the Macedonia’s accession to EU the forces in the country that are against spending the money for social rights will strengthen. So in the first 5 to 8 years it will be you, that work in interest of citizens or disabled people’s and humanitarian organizations, or the ones who have higher awareness, that will have to put a lot of effort for disabled persons’ rights not to be reduced and that it is not production that matters, but quality of living, too. Attention should especially be paid to some economy counselors from abroad who come to these countries, as they came to Slovenia and counseled on reducing pension, health and other rights. On the other hand, with the accession to EU, a lot of things in the country have revitalized lots of economic organizations and it is a quick process that offers a good prospect. So everything is not black and white, but quite colorful. I would say we are optimists because we are aware that without EU membership, Slovene politicians would probably reduce much more funds. EU required that we have the National Council of Disabled People's Organizations, work of the European Disability Council in which we are full members and it is our defense against domestic efforts for reduction of disabled people’s public funds.