Citizen consultation training for Regional Centres of Excellence – ReCeEx

29 – 31 March 2023 – In Belgrade, under the organisation of the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN) and European Policy Centre (CEP), a training was held for selected Regional centres of excellence – ReCeEx, on the topic of conducting citizen consultations.

On the first day, representatives of CEP and FREN presented the project to the participants in detail and what was done about it. Prof. Jelena Žarković from FREN spoke about her study Circular and return migration: a comparative analysis of the experiences of Bulgaria, Estonia and Ireland . After that, Prof. Ana Aleksić-Mirić from FREN spoke about how the capacities of regional centres of excellence for monitoring economic migration can be improved and the Analysis of the Action Plan for 2021-2023.  for implementing the Strategy on Economic Migration of the Republic of Serbia for 2021-2027. Then, the rules of visibility and communication on this project were presented to the participants.

The second and third training days were dedicated to citizen consultation, presented by Corina Stratulat, Senior Policy Analyst and Head of the European Policies and Institutions Programme at the European Policy Centre – EPC, Brussels. She presented the basics, principles and methods of citizens’ consultations to ReCeEx, case studies based on the EU’s experience with citizens, as well as lessons learned. On the second day, the participants were divided into groups, where they applied the learned principles in practice. The workshop ended with a plenary discussion and group presentations.

Breakfast with journalists was held within the framework of the project Circular Migration before depopulation! Innovative solutions for encouraging circular migration as a pillar of increased competitiveness and economic development. One of the goals of this Project is to build the capacity of local civil society organisations to participate in the process of supporting circular migrants and returnees, as well as proposing public policies at the national and local level to integrate them better.