Press conference marked the ending of the project „Civil Society of Serbia in the Process of EU Integration: Sharing Values and Maintaining Dialogue“
Centre for European Integration of Belgrade Open School and Friedrich Ebert Foundation presented the results of the project „Civil Society of Serbia in the Process of EU Integration: Sharing Values and Maintaining Dialogue“ on Wednesday, June 15th 2011, in Media Centre. During 12 months, duration of the project, mechanisms for dialogue between CSOs and public authorities in the European integration process of Serbia were developed. On this occassion, collection of essays „Sharing Values and Maintaining Dialogue“ was presented and certificates were handed out to the representatives of CSOs. Ms Vesna Djukic, General Director of Belgrade Open School, Mrs Yolanda San Jose, Head of Operations I, The Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia, Mr Srdjan Majstorovic, Deputy Director of the European Integration Office of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and Mr Michael Ehrke, Director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Serbia, spoke at the conference.
Belgrade Open School, with the support of Friedrich Ebert Foundation, had succeeded in creating a model of CSO participation in the implementation of environmental policy in Serbia through project „Civil Society of Serbia in the Process of EU Integration: Sharing Values and Maintaining Dialogue“, said Ms Djukic. She emphasised that during the 12-month period of project’s realisation policy recommendations for systematic and sustainable participation of CSOs in the implementation of environmental policy were written, capacities of CSOs were strengthened by carefully conceived methodology for policy paper writing and public advocacy training, and the EU member states’ good practice examples were presented. „Collection of essays represents one of the prominent results of the project considering the fact that it contains policy briefs that deal with real challenges in implementation of environmental policy on the local, regional and national level, and the posibilities of CSOs to meet these challenges“, added Ms Djukic.
Mrs Yolanda San Jose emphasised that Serbia had already made a significant progress in the implementation of environmental policy in comparison to the previous year, especially in the field of legislation on air pollution, waste management and environmental protection. „Serbia still has to adopt a whole range of regulations necessary for adoption of the EU Environmental Policy standards. Civil society is recognised to be a mayor actor in social, political and economic sphere of life therefore, informing citizens is one of the key elements in formulating environmental policy measures“, explained Mrs San Jose.
„Partnership approach between sectors is the key precondition for adoption of the EU standards and values in Serbia“, said Mr Majstorovic and added that expert capacities of CSOs represent an important resource for European integrations, and that CSOs play an important role in monitoring the enforcement of the EU standards and values on the local level which makes partnership approach even more significant.
„By presenting the positive experiences of the EU member states, we introduced the posibility to a more effective solutions for environmental challenges in Serbia“, said Mr Ehrke and added that the role of CSOs, appart from being a significant partners to public authorities, was to constantly advocate for environmental issues, because environmental policy is not only a technical issue, but the crucial aspect of the development of a country.