European integration of the republic Of serbia and the role and capacities Of environmental civil society organisations: Between normative and reality

Todić Dragoljub (Ph.D., Research Professor, Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade), d.todic@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs
Bobić Maja (General Secretary, European Movement in Serbia, Belgrade), maja.bobic@emins.org

The paper emphasizes certain general elements and the existing literature relevant to the understanding of the role of the civil society organizations in the contemporary society in the context of the importance of citizen participation in decision-making, contributing to the democratization of the society, the improvement of relations between public authorities and interested citizens, strengthening European integrations and solving environmental problems in general. The importance of the CSOs participation is especially emphasized in the following activities: participation of CSOs in harmonization of national legislation with the EU regulation and participation of CSOs in decision-making regarding environmental issues. In the second part of the paper, the assessment of CSOs capacities in this respect in the RS is provided. The main thesis examined in this article is that the role of CSOs in European integration is partly regulated but the question of the capacity of CSOs to participate in the activities related to accomplishing objectives of the European integration is not adequately overviewed.

Keywords: European integration, civil society organisations, public participation, capacities, environment, legal harmonization