After the held regional conference on legal and fiscal frame of civil society organizations The public interest in Macedonia is not defined The improvement of conditions for establishing and functioning of civil society organizations and their accordance with the best European practices is a topic which has been very often debated in the past several years between the representatives of the civil society organizations, responsible state organs and domestic and international experts. In that direction was the two-day dispute at the “Regional conference on legal and fiscal frame of the civil society organizations”, held on 24 and 25 September in Skopje, organized by FOSIM and MCIC within the project “Support of the national forum/platform for civil society”, financed by the European Union and managed by the European Agency for Reconstruction. ECNL took part with its experts who conveyed international experiences. Taking into consideration the fact that preparation of a new text for the Law on citizens’ associations and foundations is in process, some issues were discussed at the conference that still draw attention and polemics within experts, representatives of the responsible state organs and practitioners from the civic sector. Four groups of questions were key: 1. the right to free associating; 2. management in civil society organizations; 3. direct economic activities; and 4. status of public interest. The topic of direct financial support of civil society organizations by the state was also discussed at the conference, as well as the application of the Law on donations and sponsorships in public activities.   1.      The right of free associating was considered from an aspect of three issues on which there are still different attitudes. Namely, the right of founding associations by legal entities, the right of foreigners’ associating and the right of juveniles’ associating are issues that in most of the European countries have been absorbed since long ago. Contrary to the European practices, the restrictive interpretation of the Constitution by some experts in Macedonia does not yet allow these basic freedoms determined by the European Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Basic Freedoms, confirmed also in the verdicts of the European Court for Human Rights. 2.      Management in civil society organizations, that is the division of executive and managing organs was a topic that drew significant attention. The classical division of organs in the western European countries is a clear division between the managing and executive organs, contrary to the practice in the civil society organizations in the countries of central and Eastern Europe where these two functions are still mixed or are under one body’s authority. The existing regulations in the Law on citizens’ associations and foundations due to the discrepant terminology create certain confusions in the authorities and the clear division of managing and executive organs in the citizens’ associations and foundations. It was pointed out that at the moment in the civil society organizations in Macedonia there are not any mechanisms for balanced division of power for making decisions and internal control of work, although there are some more developed civil society organizations that can serve as good examples of established internal democratic organs. 3.      Economic activities are an important source for the civil society organizations and they directly contribute to sustainability of the civic sector. It is an international practice of civil society organizations to be enabled to directly deal with economic activities as a way of financing their activities. In all countries it is clearly stated that incomes gained from economic activities have to be used for financing the organization’s work and cannot be distributed to private persons. The Republic of Macedonia is the only country in Europe which does not allow civil society organizations, according to the law, to directly deal with economic activities. 4.      The international experience shows that in many countries the practice of selecting certain organizations that on the basis of their goals and activities have certain rights, advantages and benefits, is familiar, and at the same time they are subject to stricter obligations to responsibility, reporting and transparency. Defining the public interest and organizations that can gain such status is in different countries differently regulated. Most frequent users of a status of public interest are citizens’ associations, foundations, other non-profitable forms of associating (for example, non-profitable companies in Hungary or associations of the local self-government units in Poland). There is not a practice for gaining this status by political parties and trade unions. The most frequent benefits for OPI are: tax relieves, state financing, a built image in the public etc, whereas the obligations are: stricter managing rules, obligations to responsible, transparent and reporting work, financial reports and independent audits etc. Public interest in Macedonia is not defined. Regulations for status of an organization of public interest were projected in the proposal-amendments of ZZGF in April 2006 but they were not adopted by the government and therefore this issue is one of the key that has to be solved with the new regulations of the Law on citizens’ associations and foundations. The conference ended with group works where experiences were analyzed with application of the Law on donations and sponsorships in public activities and further activities and the issue was also considered on what should be developed in the strategy for development of voluntarism in the Republic of Macedonia?