Project: DEPOCEI

Implementing organization: Faculty of Political Sciences – University of Belgrade, Serbia

Slavisa Orlovic, Vice-Dean for Quality, Self-Evaluation, Science and Research and Vesna Knezevic-Predic, project leader, opened the Kick-off meeting and welcomed participants – representatives from all partner institutions.

Dejan Pavlovic, introduced the project aims, the beneficiaries and the timeline of the project. The project will last for three years, ending on October 15, 2015. During the first year of the project, five centres for EU public policies will be established in Nis, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Tuzla and Belgrade.

In the 2^nd part of the kick-off meeting, representatives of all partner organisations were presented. All project partners were introduced: the University of Sarajevo, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, University of Nis, University of Alicante, University of Montenegro, University of Tuzla, The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration, Belgrade Open School, and the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Sciences. Two representatives from each partner institution were nominated for the project Steering Committee. NISPAcee representatives in the DEPOCEI Steering Committee are Ludmila Gajdosova, NISPAcee Executive Director and Elena Zakova, NISPAcee Project Manager.

During the meeting, the roles and responsibilities within the consortium and an overview of the forthcoming project activities were discussed. Alfredas Chmieliauskas, NISPAcee expert from Lithuania, gave a presentation about his previous experience, relevant to the project. He spoke about the difference between the trainers and lecturers and about the establishment of the training centre in Lithuania, its changes over time and he also emphasised the importance of the future sustainability of DEPOCEI centres.

Within the consortium the possible public policies, which would be the subject of future trainings and research, were discussed. The partners proposed the following preliminary topics: 1. Research and Innovation; 2. Justice, Security and Freedom; 3. Competition; 4. Foreign and Security policy; 5. Environment; 6. Rural development; 7. Employment and Social policy; 8. Consumer protection; 9. Information Society; 10. Taxation; 11. Budget; 12. Agriculture; 13. Energy; 14. Human rights and 15. Internal market. The final number of selected EU public policies should be around 10.

The next meeting of the DEPOCEI Steering Committee is planned to be held in Belgrade during the third week of May, 2013. The project will also be presented in the framework of the 21^st NISPAcee Annual Conference, which will be held during this period in Belgrade, Serbia.