The smear campaign against BCSP and the targeting of our researchers and members of the BCSP Executive Board are just another example of the increasingly hostile political environment in which civil society organizations operate in Serbia.

On the occasion of the release of the recent Freedom House “Nations in Transit” report in which Serbia found itself in the category of a “hybrid regime” instead of a democratic country for the first time in 17 years, we express serious concern for the state of democratic institutions in Serbia. We call on the Government of the Republic Serbia to take these assessments seriously and work hard towards ensuring the conditions for the improvement of democracy and media freedom in the country, and call on the European Union and its Member States to adequately recognise these issues as crucial in the process of European integration.

For the eighth consecutive year, BCSP was recognized among the best think tanks in the world on the research topics of defence and national security, and foreign policy and international relations.

Monitoring the state of democracy and freedom of expression and the media in Serbia will be in the focus of a new Cross-Sectoral Working Group of the National Convention on the European Union (NCEU) for political criteria, which was established on January 24, 2020 in Belgrade.

Dear friends and partners, BCSP wishes you a safe and sound New Year! In 2020, we will continue to defend security as a public good through opening space for dialogue based on research on key topics in Serbia, the region and Europe. Take a look at the biggest BCSP successes of the year behind us. BCSP Achievements The , which BCSP initiated and co-publishes, has been ranked in the ...

{image1} Sonja Stojanovic Gajis, member of the BCSP Executive Board, is one of the three recipients of the OSCE Person of the Year Award. Stojanovic Gajic received the award because of the commitment to promoting civilian oversight of the security sector in Serbia and including youth in reform efforts. This award recognizes citizens of Serbia who contribute to the promotion of the OSCE values in the country. This year, ...

The challenges to the establishment of the rule of law in local communities and the ways local activists use to overcome them was the focus of the event Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) organized on 30 May 2019 in Kraljevo. The local perspective of activists in Kraljevo, the national perspective from Belgrade and the Brussels’ viewpoint regarding progress of Serbia in chapters 23 and 24 of EU accession ...

Threats and pressures on activists and independent journalists, experience with state authorities, protection measures and necessary help are the topics of the newest case study by BCSP.

Civil society organizations and the media have the opportunity to file requests for misdemeanour proceedings in cases where their right to free access to information of public importance has been violated as a legal entity, the Misdemeanour Court of Appeal ruled. With this interpretation, the dilemma was solved that caused the misdemeanour courts to reject dozens of requests by civil society organizations across Serbia. At the Second Session of ...