2021-04-28

Two Decades of Social Dialogue in Serbia - Debate

On 29 April 2021, the Center for Democracy Foundation organised the following debate: Two Decades of Social Dialogue in Serbia.

This year marks a full two decades since the birth of social dialogue in modern Serbia. What are the results? How does social partnership function? How do we develop social dialogue in Serbia in the context of how things currently are where social dialogue, democratic procedures and tolerance are concerned? Are risk mitigation and increased usefulness of the development of social dialogue simply a matter of principle for domestic actors or do they represent the real will and needs of social partners? How do we in Serbia view collaboration with key actors (stakeholders) on the international, European, national and local levels, in terms of the progression of social dialogue. What lessons have been learned by social partners relative to social dialogue, to date? Does European assession include enough of an incentive in terms of developing social dialogue?

The debate was initiated by Dr Max Brändle, Director of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung regional office for Serbia and Montenegro.

The opening statements of the debate were given by Darija Kisić Tepavčević, Minister of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs; Prof. Zoran Stojiljkovic, PhD, United Branch Trade Union Independence; Miloš Nenezić, Union of Employers of Serbia; Prof. Mihail Arandarenko, PhD, Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade and Nataša Vučković, Center for Democracy Foundation. The debate was moderated by Ljubica Gojgić, a journalist at RTV.

We organised the debate in collaboration with United Branch Trade Union Independence and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation through the CENTER DIALOGUE – SOCIAL DIALOGUE project.