Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

During the next few days Serbia is expecting the first comments from Brussels regarding the action plan of reforms that is the condition for opening Chapter 24 on Justice, Freedom and Security, it was said at the session of the National Covenant on EU dedicated to this issue on 6 February. As stated at the event, this document was published after the initiative of a group of non-government organizations and is now available to the public. The head of the negotiation team, Tanja Miščević, emphasized that Serbia made a significant step forward through this document, because it encompassed all elements of the envisaged measures, from EC requirements, through financial funds and their sources, up to the indicators of the assessed impact of measures on daily life.

Opinions differ on whether the public has been sufficiently involved in the creation of this document from the beginning, but the overall assessment is that a large step forward was made in this regard. Namely, the first version of the plan for Chapter 23 was published, while for 24 it was not.

The director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, Sonja Stojanović Gajić, reminded those present that in December 2014 there were 52 civil society organizations demanding that the action plan be publicly available. She, however, also commended the developments regarding this issue, stating that civil society organizations had the opportunity from the very beginning to directly discuss the draft action plan with the working group representatives at this session of the Covenant.

Source: www.euractiv.rs