On Friday, 27 February and Saturday, 28 February, the first seminar for MPs – members of the Green Parliamentary Group (GPG) in the new convocation of the Serbian Assembly – was held. The seminar was dedicated to strategic planning, reaching an agreement about the GPG goals and methods of work; and finally, introduction to the negotiations with the European Union in chapter 27, concerning the environment.
Delegates at GPG agreed that they should focus on:
- strengthening the awareness among the MPs and in public regarding the need for a clean environment;
- raising the awareness of MPs and among the public about the importance of the topic of protecting the environment and reaching decision makers to solve problems in this area.
When it comes to the organization of work groups, MPs discussed proposals for coordination of GPG’s work and the obligations that MPs will have in the process.
The group currently has 28 members. The proposed model assumes that three MPs from different parties (two representing the ruling parties and one the opposition) coordinate the work of the group for a period of six months, taking into account equal representation (of both sexes).
Duties of the coordinating team include scheduling meetings and liaisoning with the secretariat of the Assembly; proposing and coordinating activities; implementing the action plan; meetings with external actors; deciding who speaks to the public; but the key is to invite all members to provide support.
Assistance in coordination will be provided by the Centre for Modern skills and the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence.
MPs have defined some general and some thematic priorities for future work, listed the objectives and proposed activities. Given that not all members attended, it was proposed to set up a meeting at which the proposal would be presented in detail.
In the second part of the seminar, Tanja Petrovic of the Young Explorers of Serbia presented the negotiation process with the EU, what does chapter 27 entail and what is the current situation in our country. All agreed that the role of GPG here will be very important, given the complexity of the process.
(Text and photos prepared by colleagues from the Centre for Modern Skills)
