Although the President of the Council for Development of NGOs Marija Vučinović scheduled the session for 12 September, the members of the Council from the ranks of non-governmental organisations will not take part in its work.
Representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) informed the Council about their decision. As the reason behind it, they stated that none of their demands was met since July 22 when they submitted them in written format to the President of this body.
They demanded from the President of the Council “to provide written assurance that the official opinions of the Council will in future primarily be sent to the members of the Council for deliberation and verification and then in such, verified format delivered to the Government.” This decision of the Council’s NGO members is in accordance with the joint assessment that the President of the Council, together with the Office for Cooperation with NGOs, have modified the Opinion approved by the Council’s majority in relation to the Report on the procedure of issuing the Decision on the allocation of revenue from games of chance for 2016, added stands and opinions which the Council did not approve, and delivered it to the Government hereby rendering the Opinion previously adopted by the Council meaningless.
Council’s NGO representatives have also requested written assurance that the press releases from the future sessions of the Council will be delivered to the Council’s members in a timely manner (before delivery to the media).
The letter with the demands is an expression of the culmination of relations between the President of the Council and the Head of the Office for Cooperation with NGOs on one side and representatives of non-governmental organisations in the Council on the other.
Council’s NGO representatives believe that the dialogue management and the decision-making process in the Council do not respect the views of non-governmental organisations.
The topic on the agenda of the scheduled session is deliberation on the Draft analysis of the effects of implementation of the 2014-2016 Strategy for Development of NGOs.
Stevo MUK
President of the Managing Board
