The Project was implemented by a coalition of 12 organizations engaged in human rights and the development of democracy, as well as professional judicial associations:

1. Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) (Project Leader)
2. European Policy Centre (CEP);
3. Association of Public Prosecutors and Deputy Public Prosecutors in Serbia;
4. The Network of the Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (CHRIS Network);
5. Judges’ Association of Serbia;
6. Transparency Serbia;
7. Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP);
8. Partners for Democratic Change Serbia (Partners Serbia);
9. Belgrade Centre for Human Rights,
10. Judicial Research Center (CEPRIS);
11. National Parliament Leskovac;
12. Forum of Judges of Serbia.

One of the three main goals that the project aimed to achieve is to establish proactive relationship between the representatives of the judiciary and the citizens and their better acquaintance with the system itself, which would help citizens to better meet and understand their rights, as well as how to reach them. The project aimed to establish this type of relationship through several channels of communication with citizens, which have been adapted to the different social structure of the population, age and education level. This included communication through a digital platform, digital media and blog posts, as well as through local councils in 15 cities and municipalities in Serbia. Led by the spirit of developed democracies, the project wanted to adopt the principle of open dialogue between citizens and the judiciary, and to encourage their greater engagement in local communities. The task of the project was to help citizens to understand their rights, guaranteed by the Constitution, and also to inform citizens how the judicial system works and how judges and prosecutors make fair and rational decisions.

The second goal of the project involved organisations to work on researching and detecting the primary needs of citizens in their everyday practice with the judiciary in Serbia. This activity tried to understand and investigate citizens’ reasons for low level of trust in the judicial system, widely monitoring citizens’ experiences in meeting with the judiciary. As a result of this activity, the coalition on the project created three comprehensive reports that serve as a mean of further public policies formulation that support citizens’ needs.

The last goal of the project was to raise the accountability and integrity of judicial institutions. The project aimed to work with judicial and civil society stakeholders to enhance the integrity and accountability of judicial institutions through an improved methodology of integrity plans and an open procedure for appeals and free citizens’ complaints, making them more transparent, more accessible and engaging citizens themselves.

Contact person: Jovana Knežević, Project Manager (jovana.knezevic@cep.org.rs)

Publications published within the project:

The Report on Monitoring the State in the Judiciary for 2020 (SRB)

The Report on Monitoring the State in the Judiciary for 2021 (SRB)

The Report on Monitoring the State in the Judiciary for 2022 (SRB)

Events held within the project:

Presentation of the Report on the State of the Judiciary for 2021 (SRB)

What is holding back judicial reform? (SRB)

The Report on Monitoring the State in the Judiciary for 2022 (SRB)

Članak Constituencies for Judicial Reform in Serbia se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

This Project sought to contribute to the improvement of the enforcement procedure in Serbia through raising citizens’ understanding of and educating them on their rights and obligations in the enforcement procedure in selected three municipalities. (Kragujevac, Pančevo and Kraljevo).

This Project sets out citizens as the main target group and end beneficiary of the project, as the project aims at enhancing their awareness and knowledge about their rights and obligations in the enforcement procedures. The secondary target groups are the selected local self-governments and public utility companies in these municipalities, as owners/providers of municipal services being the largest generators of enforcement procedures at the local level. Finally, the project activities also targeted consumer protection organisations and public enforcement officers within the cites covered by the project.

The overall goal of the Project was to support judicial reform and increase judicial efficiency in Serbia through improving citizens’ understanding of their rights and obligations in enforcement procedures.
To achieve this overall goal, the activities within this Project were directed towards improving the communication and coordination among key actors in enforcement procedures in municipal service provision, and awareness of citizens on the role of local self-governments and public utility companies, and their rights and obligations, in enforcement procedures.

The Project was financially supported through the grant provided by USAID technical assistance project “Rule of Law” which promote the strategic advancement of Serbia’s judicial reform process, increase judicial efficiency, promote access to justice through non-judicial services (public enforcement officers), and build the capacity of institutions in the judiciary outside of the court system.

Članak Raising the level of citizens’ understanding of their rights and obligations in the enforcement procedure at the local level se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The overall goal of this project was to support judicial reform and increase judicial efficiency in Serbia through improving the accountability and transparency of public enforcement officers. CEP was the implementing party, while People’s Parliament from Leskovac was a project partner involved in the delivery of activities at the local level.

Although the functioning of public enforcement institute is relatively new in Serbia, and its benefits are yet to be evaluated, several issues have already been identified in their daily operation, especially in terms of their relations with citizens, i.e. parties in the enforcement procedures. Citizens are not adequately informed on the rights and obligations they have in the enforcement process, while the public enforcement officers sometimes act without transparency and disproportionately.

The results of the implementation of this project are:

• Identification of problems and obstacles to the effective involvement of consumer protection and other civil society organizations in monitoring the work of public enforcement officers.
• Developing and piloting a model for involvement of civil society organisations as an independent mechanism for monitoring the work of public enforcement officers.
• Rising awareness of the main stakeholders and the general public about the importance of civil society organisations involvement in monitoring the work of public enforcement officers.

Publications produced:

Study: Problems and obstacles in access to justice in enforcement procedure from the perspective of consumer protection

Policy brief: Problemi i prepreke za pristup pravdi u izvršnom postupku iz perspektive zaštite potrošača (in Serbian)

Vodič za zaštitu prava potrošača (in Serbian)

Infographic: Izvršni postupak i komunalne usluge (in Serbian)

Infographic: Položaj dužnika u izvršenju (in Serbian)

Infographic: Glavne specifičnosti izvršnog postupka u komunalnim predmetima (in Serbian)

The project was financially supported through the grant provided by USAID technical assistance project “Rule of Law” which promote the strategic advancement of Serbia’s judicial reform process, increase judicial efficiency, promote access to justice through non-judicial services (public enforcement officers), and build capacity of institutions in the judiciary outside of the court system.

Contact person: Dušan Protić, Programme Manager for Internal Market and Competetiveness (dusan.protic@cep.org.rs)

Članak Access to justice in enforcement proceedings – building a model through consumer protection lens se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

“Partnership for Public Administration Reform and Public Services” was implemented by two main partners European Policy Centre (CEP) and European Movement in Serbia (EMinS) during the two-year period. The project is realised in cooperation with 12 other partners in Serbia: Pro-Pozitiv, Protecta – Niš, Youth Centre Timok i 9 members of the Network of European Movement in Serbia in Subotica, Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica, Lazarevac, Valjevo, Kraljevo, Kruševac, Novi Pazar i Leskovac.

The goals of the project were:

1. To ensure involvement of CSOs across the Serbian territory in monitoring the progress of PAR and in designing high quality and evidence-based proposals for reviewing/improving the PAR policy
2. To create two-way communication between citizens and responsible public authorities on PAR and public services provision, by collecting citizens’ feedback on the quality of administration and public services and ensuring the reaction of the responsible authorities
3. To deliver methodologically solid evidence on citizens’ satisfaction with three widely used and salient public services, as one of the key reform areas under the EU accession framework for PAR, and on the quality of policy making in those policy areas
4. To provide evidence-based recommendations and inputs related to PAR in the context of EU accession negotiations

Within this project, four workshops were held for local CSOs:

First workshop for CSOs in Kraljevo (in Serbian)

Second workshop for CSOs in Kovačica (in Serbian)

Third workshop for CSOs in Niška Banja (in Serbian)

Fourth workshop for CSOs in Kladovo (in Serbian)

Within this project, we produced the following documents:

Openness and inclusiveness of public policy-making in Serbia

Grey Book of Public Services

Policy briefs:

Challenges and of civil society in the process of public administration reform (in Serbian)

Human resources at the local level: The most important link for quality public services

One of the most important activities is the national ME at spotlight campaign, conducted in order to involve the citizens of Serbia in the process of public administration reform.

The final conference was held on 25 April 2018 in the Metropol Hotel. Find out more about the conference here.

For more information about the project and its results, we invite you to visit the website created within the project: www.mojauprava.rs 

Članak Partnership for Public Administration Reform and Public Services in Serbia – PARtnerships se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The goal of the project was to ensure sustainable forms of cooperation between SAI, civil society organisations and citizens through:

• the establishment of a more institutionalized cooperation in the common efforts to achieve government accountability, and
• the improvement of the management system of citizens’ requests for audit in order to increase citizens’ participation in audit process

This was the continuation of the successful cooperation between CEP and SAI which began in 2012 with the project Determining Condition for Improvement of work of the State Audit Institution of Serbia, assisted by the USAID JRGA.

This initiative was supported by the USAID Judicial Reform and Government Accountability Project (JRGA).

Članak Increasing Citizens’ Involvement in Achieving Government Accountability in Serbia se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The Project implemented by EPC and CEP aimed at contributing to accountability and effective management of public funds in Serbia by strengthening the capacities of the State Audit Institution to enforce its legal implementation measures. More specifically, the Project’s objectives were:

• To improve the implementation record of the whole range of measures at disposal to the State Audit Institution of Serbia in the discharge of its function, as well as its ability to ensure continuous and credible monitoring of the implementation of its measures
• To improve the participation of the civil society sector in the monitoring and evaluation of implementation of SAI’s measures

One of the key outputs of the Project is a comprehensive assessment of the state of implementation of the SAI’s measures, including analysis of the obstacles posed in the existing relevant legislation. The results of this assessment was presented to the public and to the media in June 2012 at a Conference that gathered representatives of the SAI, other relevant state authorities and civil society organisations.

The Project also produced recommendations for continuous and credible monitoring and evaluation regarding the implementation of the SAI’s measures, especially from the aspect of integrating the civil society in that process. Such recommendations weree presented and debated at the Conference in June 2012.

The direct beneficiary of the Project is the State Audit Institution of the Republic of Serbia, which has endorsed the project approach and was closely involved in the implementation of the activities. The target group of the Project included public organisations which have so far been audited by the SAI, the judiciary, as well as the Committee on Finance in the Serbian National Assembly.

You can find out more about the USAID’s Judicial Reform and Government Accountability Project here.

Članak CEP and EPC work together for the benefit of the Serbian State Audit Institution se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.