What is advocacy? What is the difference between marketing and advocacy, is advocacy the same as lobbying? At Srebrno jezero, from June 30 - July 2, the second to last training within the CS4EU project we tried to answer these and many other questions.

During the last week from June 26th to 28th, in Petrovac, Montenegro, a partner meeting of the organizations within WeB4YES consortium was held.

According to a Eurobarometer survey, at the end of 2018, Sweden is one of the EU Member States whose citizens have the highest level of confidence in the European Union. As many as 71% of Swedes believe that their voice is heard in the EU, there is also a high degree of trust in Swedish institutions, while 88% of citizens have a positive attitude about the national economy.

From 16 to 23 of May info sessions dedicated to the WeB4YES open call was held in Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad. Info sessions gathered representatives of small local organizations dealing with issues of youth employment and employability.

It is necessary to have a continuous review of the achieved results and objectives in order to improve and increase the efficiency of the implementation of public policies. In democratic societies, the authorities are continuously under the throb of the public so it has required mechanisms which would help to present achieved results. A system of monitoring and evaluation has been established - tools that assess the performance and impact of a public policy.

Poland will celebrate 15 years this year since becoming a member state of the European Union. What is commendable is the fact that it has achieved great economic growth, improved infrastructure at the national and local level, as well as the living standard of its citizens. The question that is inevitably raised is what was Poland's "recipe" for these successes and whether Serbia, in the process of European integration, can learn from its example.

During the 22nd and 23rd of March, the Belgrade Open School organized training for representatives of sixteen civil society organizations engaged in improving the employability of young people within the project "Western Balkan Civil Society Organization for Youth Employment Support" (WeB4YES). Sixteen representatives who attend the training are from organizations that work at the local, provincial and republic level to improve the employability of young people through various actions, as well as public advocacy campaigns.

Access to information of public importance is regulated by the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, with the purpose of the fulfillment and protection of the public interest to know and attain a free democratic order and an open society.

One of Serbia's most important foreign policy goals is to become member of the European Union. Apart from the fact that this process involves harmonization of Serbian legislation with the acquis communautaire, it also involves number of reforms that are suposed to take place in all spheres of society.

The beginning of the third year of the project Civil Society as a Force for Change in Serbia's EU Accession Process (CS4EU) started by gathering of partnering civil society organizations in the premises of Belgrade Open School, on 11-12th December 2018.

The Belgrade Open School (BOS) in association with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation of Serbia and the Foundation Eduardo Frei from the Netherlands, realized the XI Regional School of Democracy "New Leaders - New Opportunities" for youth representatives of the political parties, right-center oriented, from countries of the Western Balkan, from July 23th to 27th at Srebrno jezero.

Representatives of 20 partner organizations of civil society and media, from 18th to 20th of June 2018, attended a training in Palić, fourth in a row within a project “Civil Society as a Force for Change in the Serbia's EU Accession Process”. Lecturers on the training "Strengthening Program Partners for Participation in Decision-Making: Public Policy and Advocacy" were Srđan Majstorović from European Policy Centre, Vladimir Pavlović and Milorad Bjeletić from Belgrade Open School, Milan Sitarski, a certified trainer for practical policy writing, Mirjana Jevtović from "Insider" and Suzana Stojadinović from the Republic Secretariat for Public Policy.

Representatives of 20 partner civil society organizations and media participated in a study visit to Brussels from May 28th to June 1st 2018 within the project "Civil Society as a Force for Change in the Serbia's EU Accession Process". The visit included over 30 meetings to EU institutions, civil society organizations and media in Brussels.

Representatives of 21 civil society and media organizations participated, from 16-18 April 2018, within the project "Civil Society as a Force for Change in the Serbia's EU Accession Process", in a training held in Mećavnik, Mokra Gora.

Partners on the project "Civil Society as a Force for Change in the Serbia’s EU Accession Process", from 19 to 23 March, visited EU institutions, civil society organizations and media based in Brussels, Belgium.

Representatives from 21 civil society organizations and media attended a training in Vrnjačka Banja from 21-23 February 2018, within the project “Civil Society as a Force for a Change in the Serbia’s EU Accession Process (CS4EU)”. The training “Strengthening Programme Partners to participate in the European Integration process” presented the latest developments, advantages as well as problems that arise in the process of Serbia's accession to the European Unio

The first training, aimed at strengthening the capacities of civil society organizations and media within the second year of the Civil Society as a Force for a Change in the Serbia’s EU Accession Process (CS4EU) was held between 26 and 27 December 2017 in the premises of the Belgrade Open School. Training "Strengthening the internal capacities of Programme Partners" gathered 27 participants from 21 civil society organizations and media coming wide across Serbia.

The final workshop for networking of program partners on the project "Civil Society for the European Union – CS4EU" was organized on Tuesday, September 19th 2017, as part of the regional conference "Move.Link.Engage. Rethinking Europe and Western Balkans".

Nineteen representatives of civil society organizations and media from Serbia, who are partners of Belgrade Open school in scope of project ‘’Civil Society for European integration’’ participated in study visit to European Union institutions in Brussels, Belgium, from 3rd to 7th of September, 2017.  The aim of the visit was to inform the participants about the work of the EU institutions, as well as to exchange experiences with the representatives of Brussel-based civil society organizations. Besides discussion about Serbia’s accession to the EU, the role of the media and CSOs in this process, during the four days, the participants had the opportunity to discuss with the CSOs and media representatives about topics that they are dealing with within the project “Civil Society for the European Union – CS4EU”, which is conducted by BOS with the support of Sweden.

Executive Director of Belgrade Open School (BOS), Milorad Bjeletic, spoke about the significance of Serbia's accession to European Union (EU), in “15 minutes” show, broadcasted by “Južne vesti”.