Representatives of Belgrade Open School (BOS), Danijela Božović and Vanja Dolapčev, spent two days in Brussels during formal visit from 21st to 22nd January 2016, where they have met representatives of other research organizations from countries of Western Balkans.
On the first day, they presented main findings, as well as problems they faced with, while doing research on project “Partnership for Development – Improving the Role of Civil Society in Regional Policy Development in Serbia” to think tanks working in the European Union member states. They also presented recommendations for adopting and establishing partnership principle between public authority and stakeholders in creating and implementing regional development policy in Serbia. During the second day, they visited Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, where they met officers engaged in the sector in charge for monitoring process of European integration in Serbia. Throughout this visit there were discussions about main challenges in negotiation process when it comes to Chapter 22 (Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments), as well as role of civil sector in this process.
The main goal of this visit was to gather research organizations from Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia which carried out projects within European Fund for Balkans program named “Think and Link 2016” in order to present main research results to representatives of European Commission and think tanks working in the European Union. This visit was organized by European Fund or Balkans and European Policy Centre from Brussels.
