Program description
This project brought together participants from Western Balkans involved in the fight against corruption, to learn from examples of good practice from Serbia, as well as Poland.
Events in this program
Yearly, BFPE realizes more than fifty various events: conferences, round tables, panel discussions, consultancy, workshops and simulations.
Analysis and Publications
All our analysis in a single place: analysis; policy proposals; analytical reports from our events.
Program description
First activity within the project was a workshop organized in Belgrade, from 13 to 17 June 2016, and attended by 30 representatives of civil society and state institutions. Participants were acquainted with the state of the fight against corruption in Serbia through discussions with prominent representatives of the NGO sector, as well as journalists who deal with this topic. Also organized were a visit to the Anti-Corruption Agency of Serbia (ACAS) and the (Office of) the Commissioner for Free Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data.
Then, in the period from 11 to 14 July 2016, 20 participants-researchers from the Western Balkans visited Warsaw. This was the second educational event that was planned, and it provided an opportunity for program participants to become more familiar with the structure and operation of the institutions that play an important role in the system of prevention and fight against corruption, as well as to discuss with relevant stakeholders in this sphere. In addition to the introductory speech by Katarzyna Waksmundzka, Deputy Director of the European Academy for Democracy (EAD), program included study visits to the following institutions:
- Bathory Foundation – Grażyna Kopińska , an expert in the fight against corruption
- State Audit Institution – Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, President
- The Anti-Corruption Agency – Rafał Rutkowski and Natalia Sondej, experts
- Public Prosecution – Jarosław Malinowski, Department for Organized Crime and Corruption
- Institute of Public Affairs – Filip Pazderski, an expert on lobbying
Finally, on 29 March 2017 at Zira hotel in Belgrade, BFPE held an expert roundtable on protection of whistleblowers in Serbia whose goal was to bring together all relevant actors in the field of protection of whistleblowers in Serbia and to consider the effects of the Act on the Protection of Whistleblowers two years after its adoption. This roundtable brought together about twenty representatives of civil society, the judiciary – judges and assistant public prosecutor, investigative journalists and representatives of independent state bodies – the Ombudsman and the Agency for fight against corruption. Keynote address was delivered by Nemanja Nenadic, Program Director of Transparency Serbia, who presented the situation in the field of protection of whistleblowers in Serbia and set the tone for further discussion.
The project was implemented with the support of Visegrad Fund, and led by the European Academy of Diplomacy, one of the schools of political studies acting under the auspices of the Council of Europe.
This post is also available in SRP.
