Introduction
Milieukontakt Oost-Europa is an independent foundation from the Netherlands that was established in 1988. The objective of Milieukontakt Oost-Europa is to strengthen environmental NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States (CEE/NIS) to enable them to influence environmental policy and environmental behaviour in their societies. Milieukontakt pursues this aim by giving support and advice, and by encouraging and establishing co-operation between environmental organisations in the Netherlands and in CEE/NIS countries.

Milieukontakt in Croatia
Milieukontakt Oost-Europa maintains contacts and cooperates with Croatian NGOs already since the early nineties. In 1992 and 1993 Milieukontakt cooperated with Green Action Zagreb to provide trainings to NGOs. In 1996 and 1998 Milieukontakt conducted needs assessments in Croatia. As a result of these, the project “Action Coalition of Croatian Environmental NGOs” was implemented with Green Action Zagreb and NGOs from Rijeka, Split and Osijek in 1999 and 2000. The new project starts in January 2003 and is financially supported by the Social Transformation Programme Central and Eastern Europe (Matra) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.