From 6^th to 10^th October Petar Karaboev from Class 2014 was among the 30 participants in the international workshop for civil society leaders and policy makers from the Black Sea Region “Policy Development and Confidence Building”. The event took place in Budapest and was co-organized by the School of Public Policy (SPP) at Central European University and the Council of Europe. Representatives from Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Turkey, and observers from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan attended the forum. In five days, the participants discussed the challenges during the democratization of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, different models of capitalism in the region after 1989, frozen conflicts around the Black Sea, and difficulties in balancing between security and human rights. In several occasions throughout the workshop, it was highlighted that in a facade democracy and in regimes where political parties were weak or corrupted and could not initiate changes in the society, the role and responsibilities of civil society increased. For more information about the forum, please visit http://spp.ceu.hu/article/2014-10-15/spp-and-council-europe-co-organize-workshop-focused-black-sea-region