Expert opinion

	03.12.06 Victoria Panova G8 research group, University of Toronto, Director for Russia
	03.12.06 Mona Bricke German NGO Forum Environment and Development
	03.12.06 Nigel Martin Montreal International Rorum (FIM)
	02.12.06 John Kirton Head of G8 Research Group, University of Toronto
	02.12.06 Regina Gunter Head of the WWF Germany

Expert Opinion

Roberto Bissio

NGO “Social Surveillance” (Uruguay)

I was very pleased that I had possibility to contact my Russian colleagues. They are well-informed, they have critical approach and the willingness to deeply understand the civil society problems.
Many of my colleagues consider it necessary to create a global confederation of non-governmental organizations. I think we have to discuss and analyze this suggestion first, because many factors depend on the particularities of a country. It is very important for NGOs to keep the diversity of opinions. How can the confederation suggest a single position, a single point of view? From this point of view the idea of an umbrella organization involving several NGOs sounds more reasonable to me.
Anyhow, we need basic standards on which such umbrella organizations can be built. But to do this we need mechanisms elaborated and corrected by NGOs themselves, not proposed by the government or who ever it can be.
The meeting of NGOs with the Sherpas was interesting; but unfortunately, we had many issues to discuss and had no possibility to analyze them deeply. One more flaw was that we had only one person representing Africa and no one NGO from Asia.
But generally, I repeat, the meeting with the Sherpas was very interesting and it was a dialogue. It’s a good sign.

Expert opinion

	02.12.06 Halter Marek Le College de France
	02.12.06 Olivier Giscard d’Estaing COPAM, France
	02.12.06 Mika Ohbayashi Institute for Sustainable Energy Poliсy
	02.12.06 Bill Pace World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy
	01.12.06 Peter I. Hajnal Toronto University, G8 Research Group