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On October 7 – 8, a remarkable meeting took place in southern Poland. Several generations of democratic activists came together in Wroclaw to celebrate "The Path to Freedom—25 Years of Polish-Czech-Slovak Solidarity." In 1981, dissidents from the Solidarity and Charter 77 underground movements—including Vaclav Havel, Peter Uhl, Jacek Kuron, and Adam Michnik—began meeting on the "green border" of Poland and Czechoslovakia, in the Karkonosze Mountains. For the first time in the Soviet bloc, democratic activists agreed to support each other and work together by establishing a cross-border organization, Polish-Czech-Slovak Solidarity. Initial efforts focused mainly on exchanges of samizdat literature. But in November 1989, after the democratic breakthrough in Poland, the group organized a historic gathering in Wroclaw. The 1989 event, supported by NED, gave Czech and Slovak dissidents their first opportunity to speak openly to each other and the world about their struggle. Havel later credited the "happening" with helping to inspire the "Velvet Revolution."

Since those heady days, members have gone on to become local government officials, members of parliament, ministers, and ambassadors, as well as a premier and a president. The organization's unique history and role was demonstrated at the meeting's first session. In the fall of 1989, a young twenty-something Czech dissident from the group was unable to take part in the Wroclaw event because he was in a communist jail. While officially opening the 2006 conference, Alexander Vondra noted that both he and the organization had come a long way—25 years later he was Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic and Central Europe had joined the EU and NATO.

It was only fitting that the 2006 event in Wroclaw, which also celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Polish-Czech-Slovak Solidarity Foundation's registration as an NGO, was also supported by NED. The Foundation is one of the Endowment's oldest and most influential partners. In 1990, it received one of the first direct grants made to an indigenous organization in Central Europe. Known as "the Dissidents International," the Foundation was the first group that NED supported whose purpose was to strengthen democracy and human rights through cross-border cooperation. In 1992, the Foundation became the first NED grantee to share the experiences, skills, and program models developed from its work in Central Europe with prodemocracy organizations in the former USSR.

Since 1989, the Foundation has implemented more than 25 grants in 17 counties. It has organized trainings and internships in Poland on independent media-related skills for more than 700 activists from Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The Foundation's training programs are highly regarded. To participate in one program, two democratic activists traveled from Mongolia to Poland via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. In addition to support for the anniversary event, the Foundation received two NED grants in 2006 to train activists in desktop publishing skills and offer independent media practitioners internships at leading Polish media outlets.

The 2006 event was held not only to commemorate the past. With NED support, the Foundation continues to work in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. A new generation of Polish, Czech, Belarusian, and Russian activists, including at least four NED grantees, were also in Wroclaw. The meeting's second day was devoted to discussing the lessons learned from a quarter century of cross-border work and encouraging further "civil diplomacy" across borders. Thanks, in large part, to the Foundation's ground-breaking programs, NED became a pioneer and has steadily increased its budget for cross-border democracy-building work. This strategy has helped Polish and other Central European NGOs to survive and develop new capabilities. And the scope of this work has been expanded beyond the former Soviet bloc. Inspired by the Foundation and other Polish cross-border pioneers, Central European organizations are now working with NED assistance in Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other challenging countries around the world.