Project: DEPOCEI
Implementing organization: Faculty of Political Sciences – University of Belgrade, Serbia
Activity: Kick-off meeting
Term: January 18-22,2013
Venue: 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 2nd 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 21st NISPAcee Annual Conference, which will be held during this
period in Belgrade, Serbia.