The Belgrade Open School (BOS), the National Coalition for Decentralization (NCD) and the National Parliament with the support of the Foundation for an Open Society Serbia, organized a discussion forum "Democracy and rule of law outside the negotiation process - a view from local communities" in Niš, May 30, 2016.

At the event, a review was made of previous experiences and practices that marked the process of negotiations on the accession of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union (EU) with a special focus on the negotiating chapters in which progress was made the most and which opening was announced in the following period: Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Human Rights) and Chapter 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security).

At the discussion forum speakers were: Dragan Dobrasinović from Toplica Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Sofija Mandić from the Belgrade Center for Security Policy and Predrag Blagojević from the South News. The discussion forum was moderated by Vladimir Đorđević from the Media and Reform Center.

In order to represent the interests of local communities in the process of adoption and application of EU acquis, the openness and regular dialogue of local self-government, businessmen, civil society and citizens is important, so the forum was also used for the promotion and presentation of local teams to support the European integration process formed in Niš and Leskovac.