WEBINAR- SERBIA, ETNAR meeting Zagreb, 25 Feb 2016 Chapter 27 accession process and monitoring situation- Serbia Natasa Djereg, CEKOR

Monitoring Chapter 27 in Serbia Situation in Serbia Work of CSOs Process, lessons learned and recommendations Situation Negotiation started on 21. january 2014 In August 2015, Negotiation team formed The Ministry for agriculture and environment is the main institution for Chapter 27 Post screening document- TRANSPOSITION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE CHANGE ACQUIS - CHAPTER 27: STATUS AND PLANS

Networks of CSOs three main, nationwide ones: The National Convent on the EU covers all 35 negotiation chapters, the Sectoral Civil Society Organisations group is involved in pre-accession funds distribution (SECO mechanism) prEUgovor focuses exclusively on chapters 23 and 24 Other: Coalition 27, that covers only Chapter 27, 7 CSOs Vojvodina Convent-initiative from Feb and others? government adopted the Guidelines for inclusion of civil society organisations in the regulation adoption process: non- binding

NKEU- “Slovak” model part of the formal procedure for discussion of negotiation positions in National Assembly (direct link to the government due to a decision made by the Committee on European Integrations of the National Assembly, from June 2014, in which it was explicitly mentioned that NCEU working groups will be consulted by this body during the process of adopting the negotiating positions) Channel of communication CSOs and public institutions in process Part of the Regional Convent on EU integration 650 members from various CSOs, academia, syndicates, 19 working group. Leading NKEU CSO is the European Movement of Serbia. 75 sessions and public events in Belgrade and Serbia 1200 participnts in work of NKEU 7 publications, 170 media appearances

Coalition 27 Coalition CSOs :Belgrade Open School, CEKOR, Environment Improvement Centre, GM Optimist, NGO Fractal, WWF Serbia, and Young Researchers of Serbia, group was founded in June 2014 Reports: 1. Contribution of Coalition 27 to Serbia 2014 Progress Report, Overview of Chapter 27- (October 2014) 2. Shadow report: Serbia on the Road to EU Accession: Securing ambition for Chapter 27 (January 2016)- The report lays out the main developments in environmental and climate policy in Serbia, analyses challenges and provides recommendations on how to move forward.

Challenges and lessons learned: Chepter 27 is expected to be open in 2016 the criticism hardly taken into account by government representatives adequate access to information, sufficient time to comment Chapter related challenges: Large chapter, a lot of technical issues: poor capacity of CSOs to hire experts etc. insist on clear obligations, responsibilities and deadlines Cooperate with other groups, working on other related chapters

Resources: Useful resources: Civil Society Networks in the EU Integration of Serbia – policy paper European Movement of Serbia: Convent on EU