The report "Overtly on public policies - Laws is a publicmatter", created by the Belgrade Open School (BOŠ), presents an analysis of the legislative activity of the Government of Serbia in the first 100 days of its work from 11 August to 18 November 2016. In this Report It is specially presented to what extent public hearings, as a mechanism for citizen participation in the creation of policy-makers, are used in the process of harmonization of national legislation with the legislation of the European Union.

The legislative process in the Republic of Serbia is taking place in the context of Serbia's accession to the European Union (EU), so the dynamics of the adoption of regulations has increased multiple in the last 15 years. A large number of proposed regulations create problems at the drafting stage, which is reflected in insufficient previous analyzes and impact assessments, limited space for public hearings and citizen involvement, which has negative implications on the quality and applicability of the laws themselves. Regardless of the fact that a relatively wide range of authorized proponents of the law is envisaged, numerous analyzes suggest that over 95% of the laws proposed and adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia are coming from the Government. In this light, the key documents for monitoring the legislative process in Serbia in the context of Serbia's accession to the EU are the Annual Work Plan of the Government and the National Plan for the Adoption of the EU Acquis (NPAA).

However, the analysis of legislative activity in the first 100 days of the work of the Government was carried out with the following restrictions: the government's work plan, formulated on August 11, 2016, was not published. The only work plan that is available to the public is for 2016 of the Government, which was constituted on April 27, 2014; The second revision of the National Program for the Adoption of Legal Acquis of the European Union was adopted only on November 17, 2016, while the period of application of the first revised version of the NPAA expired on December 31, 2015.

For the first 100 days of work, the Government of the Republic of Serbia sent 26 draft laws to the National Assembly for adoption, of which 15 draft laws relate to the ratification of international agreements. Of the remaining eleven laws submitted by the Government to the National Assembly, which are not related to the laws on the confirmation of international and bilateral agreements, for the first 100 days, seven were adopted by the National Assembly. According to the recently adopted revised NPAA, out of eleven legal proposals entered into the parliamentary procedure, three are envisaged for adoption, while the four are foreseen in the Annual Work Plan for 2016, which is currently available to the public. Of the aforementioned number of submitted legislative initiatives, only for two draft laws a public hearing was conducted  in the previous period.

Analyzing the holding of public hearings, as the stage of the legislative process, results shows that there is a significant shortcoming in holding public hearings, which are held only for pro forma, they do not influence decision makers. This is also evidenced by the new report of the European Commission, which emphasizes that the focus on formal and procedural issues continues to dominate rather than on the substance of the policy-making process. Also, the European Commission emphasizes that public consultations should be broader and more realistic in order to enable all stakeholders to provide a quality contribution. The justification often found is that the dynamics of the European integration process requires an expedited procedure. However, on the one hand, we have a percentage of the fulfillment of the previous National Program for Adoption of the EU Acquis (63%), while on the other hand, the legislative process and the Government's Work Plan do not follow the dynamics provided for by the NPAA.

As a result, public debate is not a regular phase of the legislative process in the Republic of Serbia when it comes to regulations contained in the National Program for Adoption of the EU Acquis, while the process of stakeholders and public participation in the legislative process through a public hearing is not regulated in detail. The intention to improve the legislative process by involving civil society at the earliest stage of policy-making is continuously repeated in a series of documents adopted in the previous period. However, involving civil society in legislative activities and creating public policies in practice is more an exception than a rule. This is partly due to the lack of a systemic approach to involving civil society in the policy-making process, and the space provided by national institutions to civil society, as well as the degree of consultation with civil society, is still largely formal and largely serve to meet the basic standards and requirements of the EU.