All debates in Serbia on the EU are centralized in Belgrade and only a few beneficiaries participate in these discussions. Serbs feel membership is too far away without any concrete, positive impact on their ordinary lives in their local communities. Therefore the Pontis Foundation have decided to create a project which will bring Slovak experience in regard to EU integration and transformation to different regions in Serbia.
This project should enable local actors in Serbia to have the opportunity to contribute to European integration and play a catalyst role for the public awareness of what changes and benefits it opens up for that particular town or region in Serbia. It should also strengthen dialogue on the local level between different actors in order to solve the current problems they face.
In a long-term perspective, this project will enable local governments to take a lead in developing local networks, mobilizing technical assistance from universities and non-state actors, working together with SMEs, NGOs and local media in order to: improve regional competitiveness through business related socio-economic infrastructure, increase awareness of the impact of EU accession on potential of Serbian economic growth on a regional and local level, including opportunities provided by Pre-accession funds, gain experience and know-how from Slovakia on how the EU integration can foster economic growth.
The Pontis Foundation plan to bring to at least two Serbian towns/regions (Backi Petrovac and Nis) locally relevant Slovak experience in regard to EU integration in order to find local solutions to local issues. We are going to organize round tables (an activity which we used successfully in previous projects) with our partner organization on defined specific topics which reflect the main problems for each region. For the roundtables we are planning to invite different local stakeholders to discuss their problems and for Slovak experts to share their experience on defined topics. The topics include the following themes: regional cooperation in terms of European regions, unemployment and prequalification, corruption, small and medium sized entrepreneurs.
Target groups:
local governments, business sector, local media, non government organizations, universities
Partner organization:
The Pontis Foundation is cooperating with Citizens Pact for SEE (CP SEE), a pioneering NGO from Novi Sad. CP SEE is a network of over 120 members, municipalities and NGOs from throughout (of) South East Europe. CP SEE has developed a high level of networking capacity with a specific cooperation approach to different stakeholders and integrating sectors into one network.
General media partner:
B92
Dates:
December 2007 – November 2008
The final one will be in Belgrade in November 2008.
Information from round table in Backi Petrovac
For more information about the project please write to project coordinator janko.hrebik@nadaciapontis.sk.
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