Media and Civil Society as Guarantees of Transparent, Responsible and Inclusive Negotiation Process

On Friday, 25th of July 2014, European Cultural Center “Grad” in Belgrade hosted closing conference of the project “Let’s Speak about the Negotiations - the Active Participation of Civil Society in the EU Negotiation Process” which is implemented by the Centre for European Integration of the Belgrade Open School with the financial support of Open Society Foundation, Serbia. 

Conference “Media and Civil Society as Guarantees of Transparent, Responsible and Inclusive Negotiation Process” was divided into two parts. The first part of the conference was dedicated to the role of the media and their reporting on the process of accession negotiations with the European Union. The need for the further education of the media representatives was highlighted during the panel, as well, while it was concluded that there is the lack of knowledge on negotiations chapters and the very EU accession negotiation process. Speakers on these topics were Tanja Miscevic, the Chief Negotiator for Serbia’s accession negotiations with the EU, Smiljana Vukojicic Obradovic from the redaction of the Internet portal “EurActiv Serbia”, Ivana Djuric from the European Integration Office of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Miodrag Radovic from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Government of the Republic of Montenegro and Tamara Skrozza, from the weekly newsmagazine “Vreme”.

In the framework of the second panel “Civil Society Priorities in the Negotiations Process”  representatives of state institutions’ and elected member candidates of the Common Consultative Committee, composed of representatives of the European Economic and Social Committee and representatives of partners from the Republic of Serbia, have presented areas to which civil society organizations should pay attention especially in the negotiations process. Additionally, panel was used, as well, for expressing support to all initiatives of civil society organizations for monitoring the accession negotiations process with the EU. Speakers on this panel were Djordje Popovic from the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Sonja Stojanovic Gajic, Zvezdan Kalmar i Ivanka Jovanovic, candidates for CSOs’ representatives in the Common Consultative Committee of the European Economic and Social Committee, Danijela Bozovic and Mirko Popovic from the Centre for European Integration of the Belgrade Open School.