Discussion forum „Let’s Speak about the Negotiations“ held
Centre for European Integration of the Belgrade Open School with support of the Fund for an Open Society Serbia organized the Discussion forum on the topic „Let’s Speak about the Negotiations – the Active Participation of Civil Society in the EU Negotiation Process“ on April 23rd to 25th 2014, at Kastel Ecka.
Discussion forum was dedicated to the improvement of dialogue between government institutions and civil society in the EU negotiation process of the Republic of Serbia, getting to know the existing legal framework for the inclusion of the organizations of the civil society and all interested parties in the process, with the emphasis on informing the citizens and timely access to information. Forum has gathered interested stakeholders from nongovernment sector, professional associations, union organizations, associations of employers, academic community and media with the purpose to strengthen the initiated dialogue between public authorities and civil society.
Two panel discussions were held during the first day of the Forum. First panel discussion was dedicated to the participation of the civil society in the EU negotiation process of Serbia. The speakers were Tanja MIŠČEVIĆ, Chief EU Negotiator of Serbia, Jadranka JELINČIĆ, Director of the Fund for an Open Society, and Danijela BOŽOVIĆ, Centre for European Integration of the Belgrade Open School. The topic of the second panel discussion was the access of information in the EU negotiation process of the Republic of Serbia. The speakers were Rodoljub ŠABIĆ, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Srđan Đurović, Fund for an Open Society and coalition PreEUugovor, Katarina GOLUBOVIĆ, Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, and Mirko POPOVIĆ, Centre for European Integration of the Belgrade Open School.
During the first day of the Forum, Sanja MRVALJEVIĆ NIŠAVIĆ, Serbian European Integration Office, spoke about the established structure for the EU negotiation of the Republic of Serbia, as well as procedures in the process. At the end of the first day of the Forum, the Professional team of the Centre for European Integration of the Belgrade Open School presented „Results of mapping of the interested stakeholders to monitor the EU negotiation process of the Republic of Serbia“, as well as position papers „Place and role of the civil society in active monitoring of the negotiation process“ and „Access of information as the key to high-quality contribution of the interested public in the negotiation process“, which have been created as a part of the initiative „Let’s Speak about the Negotiations“.
During the second day of the Forum, Marina VUKOVIĆ, Centre for the development of the nongovernment organizations (Podgorica) and Ana ŠĆEPANOVIĆ, Initiative for cooperation and Faculty of political sciences at the University of Montenegro (Podgorica) spoke about their experiences from Montenegro, related to the cooperation of the institutions of public authorities, organizations of the civil society and all interested parties in the EU negotiation process. After that started the workshop for the making of the methodology for the Access of information in the EU negotiation process of the Republic of Serbia and Monitoring of the negotiation process by the civil society.
Third day of the Forum was dedicated to the making of the draft of Declaration of joint platform for the monitoring of the EU negotiation process of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the plan of a sustainable communication with the civil society in the process of monitoring the negotiations.
All information of the EU negotiation process of the Republic of Serbia is available at the web-site „Let’s Speak about the Negotiations“.