Centre for Contemporary Politics
Центар савремене политике
FormationMay 2012.
FounderNemanja Todorović Štiplija
Founded atBelgrade, Serbia
TypeRegional policy think tank
HeadquartersBelgrade
Region
Western Balkans
MethodsOrganization of various events and activities; publishing; analysis
Official language
Serbian
English
President
Nemanja Todorović Štiplija
Program Director
Nikola Burazer
SubsidiariesEuropean Western Balkans

The Centre for Contemporary Politics (Serbian: Центар савремене политике) is an independent, non-governmental and non-profit organization founded in Belgrade in May 2012. The centre is a think tank focused on a range of fields, including reforms of the political system, foreign affairs and security, as well as protection of human and minority rights.

The Centre for Contemporary Politics aims to foster reforms and Serbia's European integration process as well as regional stability and cooperation.[1] In order to achieve this, the centre engages in various activities, such as organizing forums, PR activities, youth training camps, maintaining the political portal European Western Balkans. The centre's headquarters are in Belgrade, Serbia.

Structure and mission edit

The Centre’s primary mission is to enact reforms to the political system that protect human and minority rights, as well as ensure a safe and fair integration of Serbia into greater Europe. Operating as a think-tank, the Centre for Contemporary Politics conducts assessments and analyses on the various political issues facing the region, including political integrity, national security, and human rights. It develops and proposes objective strategies to deal with threats to the region’s political and social fabric, regional stability and cooperation and protection through PR and public awareness campaigns, community forums and youth leadership training.

The Centre for Contemporary Politics engages in the following activities in order to realize its goals:

  • Creation of policies and recommendations in a range of fields
  • Drafting proposals for political and social reform
  • Conducting analyses and studies on various political and social issues
  • Raising awareness of and advocating for necessary reforms, European integration and contemporary key issues currently confronting the state and society
  • Reporting on European integration and other key political processes that are insufficiently known or understood by the wider public

Nemanja Todorović Štiplija is the centre's President; its Program Director is Nikola Burazer.[2]

History edit

Center for Contemporary Politics was fomed formaly in May 2012. The centre has actively monitored the work of the Committee for European Integration of the National Assembly of Serbia and the Joint Committee of the European Parliament and National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia for stabilization and association from April to October 2015.[3]

On the same year CSP organized a high level conference ″Clear on Europe″, which took place in Belgrade on October 20, 2015 in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. The conference addressed the Belgrade-Priština dialogue and Serbia's EU integration. It gathered various Serbian MPs and representatives of the non-governmental sector and the media. The opening speaker was Axel Dittman, German ambassador to Serbia. Other participants included Joanna Hanson, Researcher at the London School of Economics, Marko Đurić, Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, the deputy of the Kosovar Government President Branimir Stojanović, Ilir Deda, Kosovar MP.[4] One of the panels brought together Serbian and Kosovar liaison officers Dejan Pavićević and Valdet Sadiku,[5] which was one of the first times that they were publicly together. Furthermore, the participants were Borislav Stefanović, former Serbian representative of the Belgrade-Priština dialogue, and Vjosa Osmani of the Committee for European Integration in the Kosovar Parliament.[6]

As part of the conference, the CSP published a preview of the Belgrade-Priština dialogue in Serbian and English.[5]

In January 2016, the centre used funds provided by Erasmus+ to organize a training course about institutions of the EU and European Integration for young participants from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, Croatia, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Turkey. The participants visited the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and the EU information centre.[7][8] They also participated in a simulation of the work of the European Parliament at Municipalitie Stari Grad. It was the aim of the project to empower those involved to debate, discuss and promote EU citizenship, European values, integration, and enlargement; and to engage in the active participation as citizens in the EU in decision making processes within the EU.[9]

In the same year CSP, its portal European Western Balkans and Konrad Adenauer Foundation published a guide in Serbian language "Evropski parlament i Srbija" (European Parliament and Serbia) with the aim of helping Serbian MP's understanding how European Parliament works. The promotion of the guide took place in National Assembly of Serbia and the speakers were David McAlister and Maja Gojković. [10][11]

The next year Centre for Contemporary Politics and Cooperation and Development Institute in Tirana published the regional report “Democracy in Progress: Shadow Report on Political Copenhagen Criteria in Western Balkans EU Candidate States”, which represents an analysis of the state of democracy, freedom of expression and regional affairs in four EU candidate countries: Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia and Montenegro. The report covers the period from November 2016 and October 2017. It was presented in Belgrade, Tirana, Skopje and Podgorica.[12]

In November 2018, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Brussels Agreement, the CSP published a publication in which it legally and politically analyzed the agreement and organized a conference on the same topic.[13][14][15]

Marking five years of the European Wester Balkans portal, the CSP organized a conference in September entitled "Five Years of Negotiations: How Far Is Serbia from EU Membership?" which discussed the answer to the question of how far Serbia is from the end of the negotiation process, as well as how much the problems related to the state of democracy will affect its success, as well as the promotion of the report State of Democracy in Serbia.[16] Conference was attended by Sam Fabrizi, Head of the EU delegation in Serbia.[17]

In February 2020, CSP together with seven other CSO organizations in Serbia that monitors EU integration of Serbia, published document titled ""Integrating the Western Balkans: Building a European Future" in which they presented set of recommendations to improve the EU enlargement framework and sent them to the EU institutions.[18][19][20] The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, thanked the civil society organizations from Serbia for the proposals on the new methodology of EU enlargement and said that "hese recommendations will contribute to the debate on how to make the process more effective and achieve better results for both the region and the EU".[21]

European Western Balkans edit

The centre owns and runs a portal, European Western Balkans (EWB), which aims to report on the European integration processes of several Western Balkan countries (Serbia, Croatia, BiH, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, conduct interviews and publish various texts. As part of the project, the organization maintains a network of various people and experts from across these countries as well as EU member states.

State of Democracy in Serbia edit

The Center for Contemporary Politics issues a regular annual report titled "State of Democracy in Serbia" on the state of democracy in Serbia based on the criteria for EU membership based on Copenhagen criteria. The report covers five areas: elections, parliamentary work, governance, civil society and freedom of expression, and covers the periods from November of the previous year to August of the current year. The report was first published in 2017 as a regional report, but as of next year, the focus has shifted to Serbia and its democratic processes in the country.

The latest report, published in 2020, which covers the previous period, states that the democratic situation in Serbia has deteriorated.[22]

Reference edit

  1. ^ "centarsavremenepolitike.rs". centarsavremenepolitike.rs. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  2. ^ "Naš tim". Centar savremene politike. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  3. ^ "Narodna skupština Republike Srbije i evropske integracije". centarsavremenepolitike.rs. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  4. ^ Gedošević, Lana (20 October 2015). "Ditman: Nemačka za otvaranje poglavlja". Blic. Blic. Blic. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Razumljivo o Evropi – Konferencija & publikacija Pregled dijaloga Beograda i Prištine". Centar savremene politike. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  6. ^ "Stefanović i Osmani oprečno o dijalogu Beograda i Prištine". Danas. Danas. Danas. 21 October 2015.
  7. ^ "Mladi iz 10 zemalja Evrope posetili EU info centar". Eu Info. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  8. ^ "Vlerat europiane bashkojnë të rinjtë në Beograd". MAPO (in Albanian). Archived from the original on 29 April 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  9. ^ "Mladi i Evropska unija (Youth and EU)". Centar savremene politike. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  10. ^ "Vodič o Evropskom parlamentu za srpske parlamentarce". N1 Srbija (in Serbian (Latin script)). Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  11. ^ "EVROPSKI PARLAMENT I SRBIJA: Vodič za stabilnu vožnju na putu ka EU predstavljen u Beogradu". kurir.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  12. ^ ""Democracy in Progress" regional shadow report now available online". Mreža za izgradnju mira. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  13. ^ EWB. "Pet godina od Briselskog sporazuma: Ka sveobuhvatnoj normalizaciji odnosa". European Western Balkans (in Serbian). Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  14. ^ FoNet. "Lazarević: Normalizacija odnosa zamenjena razgraničenjem". Dnevni list Danas (in Serbian). Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  15. ^ Serbia, RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of. ""Briselski dijalog u ćorsokaku, treba ga oživeti"". www.rts.rs. Retrieved 2020-10-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ "Pet godina pregovora: Koliko je Srbija daleko od članstva u EU?". Danas. 11 september 2019. Retrieved 2020-10-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Serbia, RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of. "Fabrici: Zapadni Balkan u fokusu nove EK, portfolio isti". www.rts.rs. Retrieved 2020-10-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ "Organizacije civilnog društva iz Srbije predstavile preporuke o reformi pristupanja Zapadnog Balkana EU". Dijalog.net. 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  19. ^ "NVO iz Srbije poslale u Brisel set preporuka za reformu proširenja EU". N1 Srbija (in Serbian (Latin script)). Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  20. ^ "Nova metodologija proširenja EU". Glas Amerike (in Serbian). Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  21. ^ "Borelj se zahvalio civilnom društvu Srbije na predlozima o metodologiji proširenja". Novimagazin.rs. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  22. ^ Beta, Piše: (2020-09-28). "Centar savremene politike: Došlo do dramatičnog pogoršanja demokratskih procesa u Srbiji". Dnevni list Danas (in Serbian). Retrieved 2020-10-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)



Vladimir Međak (Serbian: Владимир Међак; born 21 July 1976) is a Serbian doctor of law and an expert in European law and European integration. He is currently the Vice President of the European Movement in Serbia and a former Assistant Director of the Office for European Integration of the Government of Serbia.

Biography edit