The "Agenda for Civil Society in SEE", a three years long research project coordinated by CEU Budapest, and involving the New Europe College in Bucharest, Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin and others, starts with the assumption that the invention of the region requires the construction of a common regional vision and the emergence of a regional public debate. The project/surrealistically nicknamed Blue Bird/ is an attempt to formulate such a vision and to assist the emergence of civic regional debate. Till now, the region has been perceived in the terms of risks; the idea of the project is to refor-mulate the debate on the future in terms of opportunities.