About CECI
The Center for European Citizen Initiative is an association of citizens founded and registered in Kocani, Republic of Macedonia on April 17, 2002. The Center for European Citizen Initiative is non- profit and non- governmental organization. The Center for European Citizen Initiative has members with disabilities, carries out activities for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities and is a member of the National Assembly of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities.
Objectives of the organization:
- Promoting the goals and work of the Council of Europe and the European Union and raising the degree of democratization and Europeanization in the Republic of Macedonia;
- Broader promotion of the idea of human rights and their greater protection;
- Building strategies on a local, regional and national level according to European principles to increase the efficiency of sectors of public interest;
- Reduction of ethnocentrism, the marginalization of the Roma as well as the vulnerable groups of citizens;
- Developing local communities as permanent and attractive environments for citizens.
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.”
Elie Wiesel
President of CECI
The president and authorized person of the Center for European Citizen Initiative is Dr. Jovan Ananiev. He is the initiator and one of the founders of the association in 2002. He was born on January 21, 1978 in Kocani, Macedonia where he completed primary and secondary education. He graduated in political studies at the Faculty of Law at the University of “St. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje in 2000, he obtained a master’s degree in political science at the Institute for Sociological,Political and Juridical Research at the University of “St. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje in 2004 and earned a doctorate in political science at the Institute for Sociological,Political and Juridical Research at the University of “St. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje in 2006.