The Belgrade Open School (BOŠ) launched the "Let's Speak About Negotiations" initiative in 2013. The main goal of this initiative is to contribute to the Europeanization of Serbia through the promotion of a transparent and responsible process of EU accession negotiations based on the dialogue and partnership between civil society and public authorities.
In order to inform the public about the process of accession negotiations with the Republic of Serbia, we created a web portal and launched a monthly electronic bulletin "Let's Talk About Negotiations". We also inform the public about the process of European integrations of Serbia through the mobile android application "Europe to go".

In the framework of the initiative, the following activities and results have been achieved so far:

• An online survey was conducted to map CSOs and other stakeholders in the process of accession negotiations with the EU;

• An analysis of the results of the research "Mapping civil society organizations (CSOs), professional associations, academic public, media and other stakeholders in the process of negotiations on Serbia's accession to the European Union";

• A database of over 350 identified stakeholders that deal with monitoring of the process of EU accession negotiations, was developed and published;

• A Declaration on a common civil society platform for monitoring the process of accession negotiations of Serbia to the European Union  was developed and supported by 120 civil society organizations (a list of organizations /institutions /coalitions /networks signatories of the Declaration can be seen here);

• Position papers "Place and role of civil society in active monitoring of the negotiation process" and "Access to information as a basis for a significant public contribution to the negotiation process" were created;

• The capacities of representatives of more than 100 civil society organizations have been strengthened to participate in the process of EU accession negotiations;

• Increased knowledge among civil society activists at the local level about the importance of engaging in the negotiation process, increased participation of civil society and its capacity to represent the interests of local communities in the process of adoption and implementation of EU acquis (individual consultations with CSOs from the local level, improved cooperation between local self-governments and civil society, 3 local CSO teams for support of the negotiation process for South and Southwestern Serbia were formed: Nis, Leskovac, and Požega);

• Experiences and examples of good practice from Montenegro for the participation of civil society in the process of negotiations with the EU have been transmitted;

• Coalition 27 was formed, with the task of monitoring the transparency of the process of negotiations with the EU, and the creation and implementation of environmental policies;

• Coalition 27 regularly makes an appendix to the Progress Report on the Republic of Serbia, in the field of environment and climate change, as well as independent reports;

• Members of the Coalition 27 are actively involved in the process of drafting regulations and regularly participate in public events where the most important issues in the field of environmental protection are considered. Representatives of BOS, as members of the Coalition, were included in two working groups for drafting the law and in the sectoral working subgroup of negotiating group 27 for drafting a negotiating position for the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) and the Integrated Prevention and Pollution Control (IPPC) Directive;

• The Coalition 27 made comments on draft laws in the area of environmental protection and participated in the work of the Committee for Environmental Protection of the National Assembly;

• Improved transparency in the negotiation process, which resulted in the publishing of reports on explant screenings of the responsible institutions. Published and publicly available reports on the implementation of the National Program for the Adoption of the Acquis (NPAA) for the period until September 2015 after requests for access to information of public importance have been submitted;

• An analysis of the current activities in the process of negotiations on the accession of Serbia to the EU and the report "Negotiations on the Accession of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union - between Principles and Practice" has been prepared;

• A "Guide for monitoring the process of negotiations on Serbia's accession to the European Union" was prepared, and then the second edition of the "Guide for monitoring the process of negotiations on Serbia's accession to the European Union" was amended and published;

• Regular preparation of contributions to the Progress Report on Serbia in the process of European integration in cooperation with partners and organizations from the local level;Enhanced communication and cooperation between civil society representatives that actively follow the process of accession negotiations with Serbia - representatives of all networks and coalitions for monitoring the negotiation process participated in consultative meetings, thematic panels, and workshops;

• A recommendation was drafted and a request for initiation of a proposal for amending the legal act was submitted to the Commissioner for information of public importance and personal data protection in order to implement and improve the right to access information of public importance in the process of accession negotiations. The regulations which this request relates to are: Conclusion to direct and coordinate the work of state administration bodies in the process of drafting a negotiating position (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 71/2015 dated 14.08.2015) and the Conclusion aimed at directing and harmonizing the work of state administration bodies in the screening process (Official Gazette of RS, No. 72/2015 dated 19.08.2015). Following the initiative, a request for constitutional review was submitted by the Anti-Corruption Council (http://bit.ly/2b0LeVq) and the Commissioner's reaction was declared (http://bit.ly/2bs47T5);

• Increased visibility and coverage of the topic of accession negotiations in the media;the number of informed citizens about the process of accession negotiations increased  (regularly updated content on the web portal "Let's Talk About Negotiations", prepared and published 19 issues of monthly electronic bulletin "Let's Talk About Negotiations" and improved and regularly updated mobile android application "Europe to go").

The implemented activities within the initiative were supported by the Foundation for Open Society, Serbia. The work of the Belgrade Open School is supported also by the European Union within the framework of the "Europe for Citizens" program.