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Civil society has a great role in Serbia’s EU accession process
It is of crucial importance in Serbia’s EU accession process, to include civil society organizations, accept their proposals, and enable them to directly influence creating of policies – concluded the participants of first EU-Serbia Civil society Joint Consultative Committee meeting.
Capacities and expertize of CSOs are of great importance to Serbia on its EU accession path, is one of the most important messages from the first EU-Serbia Civil society Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) meeting, which was held on 21st July 2015 in Belgrade.
Sonja Stojanović Gajić, BCSP Director and the member of JCC, pointed out that, in order to solve some burning issues in Serbia, it is very important to open the Chapters 23 i 24 as soon as possible, and to provide complete transperancy of all official documents in the accession proccess, because, she noted, up until now, this transparency was selective.
Tanja Miščević, the Head of the Negotiating Team for negotiations with the EU, stated that a number of screening reports is to be presented by the end of 2015, and that Action planes for opening of Chapters 23 and 24 should be ready for European Commission until the end of this months.
JCC’s future role
The meeting set the foundation for the future work of the JCC, whose primary role is monitoring Serbia’s negotiations with the EU through initiating relevant topics, giving opinions and drafting reports which should increase the transparency of the negotiations and the responsibility of state authorities.
Some of the future activities of the JCC will be monitoring the implementation of the Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the promotion of transparency and inclusiveness of the process of EU accession, as well as the implementation of the opinion of the Economic and Social Council on the role of civil society on EU-Serbia.
Important recommendations JCC shall give to the Government of Serbia are invitation to financially support the work of the JCC , in order to enable this body to successfully perform its tasks, and to ensure the participation of the Social and Economic Council of the Republic of Serbia in the adoption of important legislation within the EU accession process.
JCC members expressed interest in the appointment of the new Director of the Office for cooperation with civil society, and emphasized that this should be a credible, non-political person with relevant experience in the civil sector, given the importance of the Office in coordinating relations CSOs and the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
The conclusion of the meeting is that the JCC will endeavor to set itself as an important partner and participant in Serbia and EU’s negotiation process through issuing joint statements, declarations and opinions, but also as a controller who shall ask difficult questions and initiate topics relevant for the whole process.
This report was prepared by BCSP researcher Dunja Tasić
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