Among the key topics of the conference was the question of how user-centred approaches and public service design should become an integral part of public administration. Through panel discussions and interactive sessions, participants shared experiences from the WeBER Policy Lab process and local initiatives funded under the WeBER small grants programme, discussing how design thinking methodology and participatory approaches can contribute to more accessible, inclusive and efficient public services.

An important part of the programme was the presentation of the findings of the Western Balkan PAR Monitor Report 2024/2025 – WeBER’s flagship analytical product, which provides a comparative assessment of reform progress from the perspective of civil society and citizens. The findings were further discussed through thematic breakout sessions, aiming to move from identifying challenges towards concrete dialogue on obstacles and possible solutions.

On the second day of the conference, grant beneficiaries from across the region will present their projects and the results achieved in local communities, showing how citizen engagement and co-creation can help shape public services that better respond to their needs. Through an interactive discussion format, participants will go on to examine experiences to date and the challenges in applying inclusive and participatory approaches to the design of public policies and regulations.

Članak Fourth WeBER Regional Conference “Citizens First: A Decade of Advancing Citizen-Centred PAR” Opens se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Članak Western Balkan PAR Monitor: PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 2024/2025 se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Članak WeBER Plus training programme se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

On 24 April 2024, in Belgrade, a ceremonial contract signing with the grantees was organised as the crowning event of a three-day workshop for grantees. During the workshop, they got acquainted with the design thinking skills that they will implement within their project, as well as with the rules and procedures of project management, financing, reporting, and visibility and communication.

Članak Empowering local CSOs: WeBER 3.0 awards 21 grants se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The preparation of these reports aims to show an objective picture of the state of the judiciary from a systemic point of view. This report is the third in a row, making it possible to compare the situation to previous years. The report is unique in its methodology and consistent during all monitoring cycles, Protić explained.

The first area – Legal aid – was presented by Milan Filipović, who said that the situation and grades in the first area remained the same due to unchanged legislation and practice. He also stated that the main problems in providing legal aid stem from the Law on free legal assistance.

“The biggest weakness of the mentioned law is the absence of a definition of free legal aid”, said Filipović.

The second key area – Access to data and transparency of courts and prosecutor’s offices – was presented by Damjan Mileusnić and Jelena Pejić Nikić. The most important observations in this area are that out of 31 analysed courts, only 29 have accessible websites, while the courts in Brus and Raška do not have them at all. As many as 80% of courts in Serbia regularly update their websites – once a month. The biggest problems in the field of transparency of court work are the lack of professional biographies of judges on the internet and the fact that most of the pages are not available in the languages of national minorities and adapted to blind and visually impaired persons.

The results collected within the third area – Access to courts – were presented by Dušan Protić. He emphasised that all or most of the standards for the three sub-indicators are related to financial, physical, and linguistic accessibility to the courts, which have been normatively met. Practical shortcomings in this area are reflected in the lack of litigation conducted in the languages of national minorities or with the help of adequate translators.

Dejan Petković presented findings from the fourth area – Judicial efficiency – and it was established that there were no significant changes compared to last year’s monitoring cycle.

“Court decisions should be published on court websites, and criteria for keeping court statistics should also be improved.”

Robert Sepi stated that one of the key changes in the fifth area – Ethics in the Judiciary -was the abolition of the first election, i.e. the permanence of the judicial function became a constitutional category. Another important change is the abolition of the competence of the National Assembly through the first election and the reduction of political influence during the election of judges.

“The centre of gravity of the struggle for the independence of the judiciary has been transferred to the field of work of The High Court Council.”

Marina Matić Bošković analysed the sixth area – Access to justice in wrongdoing. She emphasised the improvement of the defendant’s condition in the proceedings, while the rights of the defendant in the proceedings and the rights of the damaged are still insufficiently protected. As recommendations in this area, she singled out amendments to the Criminal procedure code, which would prevent two actions – the notification of the defendant that a criminal complaint has been filed against him and the notification of the damage that the defendant in his case has been released.

“Strengthening the independence and greater integrity and quality of work of public prosecutors can only come about through normative changes, i.e. changes to the Law on the public prosecution and the Law on the High Council of Public Prosecutions”, emphasised Matić Bošković.

Dušan Protić also presented Access to Legal Services. He stated that in this monitoring cycle, there was a drop in standards that impacted the decreased evaluation of public executors’ work. The main reason for this change is the dissatisfaction of citizens who are in the role of debtors in this type of procedure.

Članak The Report on Monitoring the State in the Judiciary for 2022 se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The event was opened by the Programme Director of CEP, Milena Mihajlović, and the Junior Researcher at CEP, Milica Divljak, who presented the findings and the recommendations of the research on the use of the eConsultation portal, after which the panel discussed the topic of transparency and inclusiveness in the creation of regulations and public policy documents in a broader sense. Panellists were Žarko Stepanović, Acting Assistant Minister for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, Ninoslav Kekić, Assistant Director, Public Policy Secretariat of the Republic of Serbia, Nemanja Nenadić, Programme Director in Transparency Serbia, Marija Ušumović Davčik, Head of the City Administration of Subotica, and Vladimir Mihajlović, Researcher at CEP. Journalist Suzana Trninić moderated the panel.

Stepanović said that the eConsultation portal originated as an initiative of the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society to be “a central place where interested parties can follow and participate in consultation processes“. Stepanović said that the old system still works and that transparency is endured on the individual websites of the authorities, but Portal should be an extension and an opportunity to see the comments of others in real-time.

“This undoubtedly contributes to transparency and makes it easier for citizens to follow because everything is in one place. This is not just a formal matter, and it brings citizens closer to the opportunity to participate. There is no good decision-making if citizens do not participate in making them”, he said.

“The consultative process is such that the comment should be answered as soon as possible so that others can see it. Users should be encouraged to repeat the comment because then others will see it and insist that the comment be adopted if they consider it good”, said Kekić. “Everyone is now competing in transparency and technologies, and we were guided by the experiences of Sweden and Denmark, which, in turn, emulated countries outside Europe”, Kekić added.

Nenadić said that the Portal has a lot of potential, including the possibility of commenting.

“Comments can be useful to others who want to get to know the subject, but also for practical reasons. The second and more important reason is that users react to something they don’t agree with because, without that, we can end up with a regulation that is worse than the original version”, he pointed out.

“Citizens do not use enough opportunities to influence the content of acts and public policy documents, mainly because they do not trust that their proposals will be considered. On the other hand, this non-participation reduces the enthusiasm of management representatives to carry out consultative processes because there are no participants. I don’t think we will have a good solution as long as legal obligations operate voluntarily. Until we have a body that could ensure that all the rules are implemented in practice, we will not have a solution to this vicious circle,” said Nenadić.

“When a regulation or public policy document is being prepared, we consider that consultations serve citizens and civil society, but it is the other way around. It is a service to the proposing authority. Until the state authorities realise that they are getting free knowledge through consultations, that will be the main stumbling block in consultations,” said Mihajlović.

Ušumović Davčik pointed out that there has been a problem of lack of quality personnel for years. “Local administration has not been interesting for young, educated personnel for a long time. An additional limitation is the limited number of employees and the need to obtain consent for new employment. This sometimes takes months. The example of Subotica is good because it is not such a small community, and it is easier to manage, but small communities certainly have a bigger problem,” she said. “All of us still need to learn, representatives of local authorities, but also citizens.” We have encountered that only individuals who are not personally interested take part in the public debate but have time and are dealing with topics that are not related to them, so quality suggestions are not received because the prescribed individuals do not participate. The documents are directly related,” she added.

“Concerning the total number of citizens, a small number of citizens participate and contribute to adopting regulations, ” concluded Ušumović Davčik.

This panel discussion was held within the CEP’s Annual Work Programme 2023, in the framework of CEP’s Strategic Plan for Good Governance, which the CEP implements with the support of the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia.

This was followed by the twelfth meeting of the WeBER 3.0 National Working Group for Monitoring Public Administration Reform in Serbia, the focus of which was the presentation and discussion of the Draft Guidelines for solving management problems and public administration reform at the local level in accordance with a citizen-oriented approach. The meeting was opened by Jovana Knežević, Project and Grant Manager of the WeBER 3.0 initiative. After a short introduction during which the project and small grants program were presented, the Draft Guidelines were presented. It was pointed out that the Guidelines are intended for civil society organisations at the local level for implementation within the WeBER 3.0 Small Grants Programme and that their purpose is to prioritise the needs, preferences and wishes of citizens in the process of decision-making and implementation of reforms.

In the following, Miloš Đinđić, the Lead Researcher on the WeBER 3.0 project, presented the key concepts on which the Guidelines are based – a design thinking approach and a checklist of goals for sustainable development. After that, the individual steps for the implementation of the Guidelines were presented in detail, with an active discussion by the guests from the civil sector, as well as representatives of state institutions from the Republic of Serbia Public Policy Secretariat, the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, the General Secretariat of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, as well as representatives of the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia.

Članak Discussion on Transparency and inclusiveness of policy creation and regulations – the eConsultation portal se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Sweden’s presidency of the EU Council ends today, and its priorities were a greener, safer, and freer Europe. Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden in Serbia, H.E. Ms Annika Ben David, highlighted the results of her country within all three priorities. Fit for 55 is the EU’s most comprehensive initiative to reduce pollution by 55% and make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. „The Russian aggression against Ukraine made Europe more united and stronger, and during the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council, it sent a million different pieces of weapons and a billion euros in financial aid and adopted two packages of sanctions against Russia,“ said Ben David. Regarding enlargement, Sweden is pragmatic and supports any country that wants to become a member that meets the membership criteria.

„Spain once recognised membership in the European Community as a national interest. Therefore, there should be no doubt when it comes to Serbia’s membership in the European Union,“ said Molina. He pointed out that Spain’s priorities represent continuity with Sweden’s priorities in the work of the EU Council, so Spain will focus on the Green Agenda, economic development, and strengthening European unity, especially when it comes to the enlargement policy. „Regardless of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Spain, all political parties agree on Spain’s priorities for the Presidency, and those elections will not negatively affect the presidency,“ he said.

Minister Miščević said that the opening and closing of clusters and chapters were not a sign of progress of Serbia towards the EU, but the actual progress is the quality of reforms implemented. „Serbia is building a culture of independent judiciary by adopting constitutional and legal changes in the area of the rule of law and is currently working on adopting additional by-laws,“ said Miščević. In addition, Serbia has shown progress in harmonising the EU visa regime and is actively working on energy diversification, which is important for economic and geopolitical reasons. When asked about the reorganisation of the team for accession negotiations of Serbia to the EU, Miščević pointed out that it is still an unresolved question for the government and will be presented to the public when the Government of Serbia makes a final decision.

Ambassador of the EU to Serbia, H.E. Emanuele Giaufret, has the opinion that a new moment for enlargement has arrived, and the renewal is political will, but that we must have a merit-based process. Concrete changes can already be seen in the example of the common purchase of gas and the participation of candidates in the discussion. „The EU shows its commitment to the integration of the Western Balkans through the access to the EU Single Market, the increase of pre-accession funds, digitalisation and accelerated regional integration for the Western Balkans announced by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The offer of membership for the Western Balkans is on the table, and the EU is looking for ways to concretise the benefits for citizens and candidate countries,“ said Giaufret.

Majstorović emphasised the importance of the proper functioning of democratic institutions for EU membership and their reliance on the rule of law. He also mentioned that raising the level of compliance with the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU and restrictive measures, as well as the normalisation of relations with Kosovo, are necessary so that Serbia can progress in the accession process. Majstorović added that the Western Balkans are missing an opportunity as the focus shifts eastward towards countries fighting for their right to be part of the European family.

Finally, European Policy Centre is working on a new proposal for staged accession to the EU to encourage both Western Balkan countries and EU members to complete the enlargement process.

This event is part of a traditional practice that CEP and the EU Info Centre started six years ago, with the aim of starting a quality debate on EU priorities from the point of view of the countries presiding over the Council of the EU (outgoing and upcoming presiding countries), with reference to current topics in the accession process. Serbia EU. The twice-yearly event gathers representatives of the diplomatic corps, state institutions, and civil society organisations and is widely covered by the media.

Članak From Sweden to Spain: New Trio, New Ideas se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The focus of the meeting was on Chapter 28, primarily on the recent proposal for amendments to the EU directive prohibiting built-in defects in devices, provisions that may be the basis for amending the Law on Consumer Protection, and administrative measures in monitoring unfair business practices. The discussion continued on the sustainability of the system of assistance to consumer organisations, mechanisms for financing their work and the possibility of forming a fund at the national level. At the same time, it was noted that a comprehensive analysis of the work alternative dispute resolution (ADR) body, which is financed from the budget, should be conducted.

One of the suggestions for improving the work of consumer protection is the establishment of the institution of Consumer Ombudsman. This foreign body would be authorised to resolve consumer complaints in a quick informal procedure.

Members were informed that last year CEP sent the initiative to amend the Law on Civil Procedure related to collective consumer lawsuits to the Ministry of Justice. Still, there has been no feedback until this moment. The National Convention will request a meeting with the Ministry of Justice on this issue.

In the health field, the new Digitalisation Programme of the health system and the need for complete and comprehensive integration of information systems in health, which are currently diverse and mutually unrelated, were discussed. It was established that connecting all primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare institutions is necessary. In light of the recent tragic events, it was proposed to improve the work on the Strategy for the Protection of the population’s mental health. Based on the experience gained in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be recommended that competent authorities precisely define how they will carry out preparations and analyses in response to future pandemics. The issue of regulations regulating organ transplantation and applying the Law on the Protection of Critical Infrastructure in public health was also raised.

Present members noted that there had been no progress in Chapter 3 since the Government’s adoption of the Negotiating Position and approval by the European Commission. The process of approval by individual member states has slowed down. Despite the efforts of the Serbian side, there are no results for now.

Institutions responsible for this area continue further harmonisation of sectoral regulations with relevant directives, and the biggest challenge in this chapter is the adoption of the Law on Services and the establishment of the Single point of contact. It was agreed that members of Working Groups 3 and 28 .would continue regular communication with competent institutions and the EU Delegation to contribute to progress in these areas through joint efforts.

Članak Working groups for Chapters 28 and 3 of the National Convention on the European Union held a joint session se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.