The Ministry of European Integration of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, in cooperation with the Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS), have organised today a seminar at the UNS Press Center for journalists who report on EU integration process and write media projects.
The aim of the training was to inform the journalists about the current state of play in the process of Serbia's accession negotiations with the European Union, the results achieved so far, and the possibilities of using the European funds.
A part of the seminar was devoted to the development and strengthening of media capacities for project preparation and development and submission of applications for grant donor funds, with special emphasis on the competitions announced by the European Union.
"A new European Commission Progress Report on Serbia will be published in April. We expect it to be positive, and that we will open five new chapters already in June," Ksenija Milenković, Assistant Minister within the Ministry of European Integration, has said at the opening of the media seminar "Media, Negotiations with the EU and IPA funds − Opportunities for Cooperation ".
Ksenija Milenković has stressed that Serbia has started accession negotiations with the European Union in January 2014, and that 12 chapters out of 35 have been opened so far, two of which have been provisionally closed.
"However, the opening of the chapters must not just be a goal in itself, but an incentive for further implementation of the reforms. Serbia has clear results, and we expect them to be acknowledged by the opening of new chapters," Milenković has said.
The journalists were interested in how much Serbia has advanced regarding the implementation of Chapter 19 on social dialogue, Chapter 7 on copyright, i.e. the intellectual property law, and how to best approximate the process of accession to the citizens.
"Serbia has opened the chapter on intellectual property law, and this is one of the chapters within which we are making great progress and for which we have good legislative solutions. When it comes to social dialogue, this is a very specific chapter because the EU has more standards that it abides by in that area than the actual legislative solutions," Milenković has said.
She has stated that the Ministry of European Integration is aware of the fact that the vocabulary used for communicating with the European Commission is difficult and incomprehensible to the citizens.
"The experience of other countries has shown that the citizens accept the process of integration the best when you talk about the accession through concrete examples. When the media can explain and show them the examples of good and bad practices, then the citizens can easily understand the difficult vocabulary of negotiations," Milenković has said.
Assistant Minister within the Ministry of European Integration Branko Budimir has addressed the journalists talking about the coordination of EU funds in Serbia.
He has said that the Ministry is aware of the role of the media, and that cooperation with them is important because it is the media that create the public opinion and communicate the key messages to the citizens.
"The European Union, and the Member States, are individually the most important development partners of Serbia, both in terms of providing grants and favourable loans. The EU allocates around EUR 200 million of grants annually," Budimir has said.
Budimir has stressed that EU donations are public and that the citizens and the media can see all approved programmes and projects at www.evropa.gov.rs, adding that a part of funds within the EU financial assistance programme is allocated to media projects each year.
(Photo: Press Center UNS, Damjan Dobrila)
