The Office for European Integration (SEIO) has signed a formal agreement with civil society and accordingly consults regularly with CSOs Memorandum of Cooperation in the European Integration Process, 12 July 2005. The Memorandum is aiming at institutionalization of cooperation with CSOs in the process of association of our country with the European Union, improvement of activity coordination, as well as cooperation for the purpose of regular and objective informing of citizens on the EU accession process of our country. More than 70 CSOs signed this Memorandum, thus becoming partners of SEIO. Besides CSOs, this Memorandum was signed by four universities. CSOs were invited to sign, providing they fulfill following conditions:
- to have activities for a minimum of two years, and
- to have implemented at least one project in the previous year related to European Integration.
Similarly, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Office of the Deputy Prime Minister worked with CSOs on a regular basis, this time through a framework at the project level for establishing partner relations with CSOs. Through an open call for proposals, they selected 7 CSOs dealing with vulnerable groups to establish mechanism of communication with institutions. Furthermore, one organization was selected to be a Management Unit. These individual contracts came into force in March 2007, and lasted until end 2008. Based on TOR, CSOs designed their own program of cooperation and communication with institutions that proved to be an excellent model. Civil Society Organizations Contact (CSOC). CSOC consists of seven civil society organizations, which represent one socially vulnerable group each: Roma, persons with disability, women, elderly, refugees and IDPs, children, youth. The main aim of the CSOC programme is to enable participation of CSOs in defining, implementing and monitoring measures taken by the Government and other relevant actors in the Strategy implementation process, as well as other reform processes. In cooperation with the broader CSO Forum, CSOC develops mechanisms of communication, creates and improves partnerships between the Government and CSOs, formulates recommendations and makes proposals on key reform processes and method of Strategy implementation. The CSOC programme made possible for 545 civil society organizations to get included in implementation of different activities related to poverty reduction at local and national levels. One of the most important results of this programme is the initiative for establishment of a general institutional mechanism of cooperation between the Government and CSOs which will become operational from January 2010. Furthermore, two year of joint work, supported financially, with capacity building, through information sharing, enabled the coalition of seven CSOs to continue their cooperation on other project and initiatives.
The most notable government‐CSO partnership is developed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports for initiating practical cooperation with CSOs based on identified common principles and values, with Manifest of youth being incorporated into the National strategy for youth. There is no formal agreement signed, however the consultation process and documents developed in cooperation between the Ministry and youth CSOs is considered among the most successful examples of citizen participation and consultation in Serbia and wider. The Ministry of Youth and Sports was formed after elections in May 2007. It is specific c because of the fact that its establishment, inter alia, resulted from a four-year advocacy effort by the Coalition of Youth of Serbia, founded by eight national youth organizations: Civic Initiatives, Students’ Union of Serbia, JAZAS, Youth Information Centre, Scouts of Serbia, Young Researchers, Youth Council of Vojvodina and Youth Council of Serbia. The Coalition was formed for the purpose of organizing an advocacy campaign for youth issues at the local and national levels. The aim of the campaign was to form bodies and strategies for youth at both levels. This campaign is one of the best examples of good practice of consultations of the State with civil society and it was highly evaluated by the Council of Europe. For the process of designing the Strategy and Action Plan were formed the following bodies: Working Group (representatives of competent ministries); Advisory Body; eight thematic groups for areas defined as priority ones (health, security, education, employment, active youth participation, leisure time, social protection, environmental protection and sustainable development); six Advisory Boards (representatives of youth citizens’ associations, local self-government units, media, business sector, international partners and youth sections of political parties) and the Support Team. In the course of the first round of consultative process were held 167 round tables in 166 local self-government units where were discussed youth problems in the Republic of Serbia. The total of participants was 4,077. This process was conducted by 47 citizens’ associations. In the second cycle of the consultative process were organized seven regional conferences for collecting comments and proposals related to the wording of the Draft Strategy, while citizens’ associations organized 170 public events. In the Strategy designing part took, in different ways, some 16,000 young people. During the consultative process and public discussion were collected opinions not only of participants in the Strategy design process but also opinions of broader public, through Internet website and sent directly to the address of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. For the purposes of the Strategy were additionally conducted two researches on youth: the Institute of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade conducted a research on leisure time and everyday life of young people, while CESID conducted a research on youth activism.
The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights was established in May 2008. Its establishment was under question due to complex post-election negotiations on division of portfolios between the coalition led by the Democratic Party and coalition around the Socialist Party of Serbia. At one moment, the forming of this Ministry was in jeopardy, which provoked a strong reaction of civil society organizations and the entire democratic public. After a very short and intensive advocacy campaign led by CSOs and under the public opinion pressure, the Ministry was formed nonetheless. In November 2008, the Ministry, supported by the OSCE Mission, started establishing its official cooperation with civil society organizations addressing the protection and promotion of human rights. The Ministry’s invitation for cooperation was responded by more than 150 CSOs. The Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ministry and authorized representatives of CSOs was signed on 9 February 2009. Pursuant to provisions of the Memorandum, the Ministry will include CSOs into the activities on drawing up reports, strategies, action plans, and draft laws under the jurisdiction of the Ministry. Moreover, the Ministry will implement projects in the domain of human rights together with CSOs.