At first, it was assumed that if parliaments made their data available, people would come and get it. More recently, it has become clear that there is still much to do to make open data “profitable” and usable in a constant and reliable way. The session will also question parliament’s ability to access and use data from the executive branch of government and elsewhere in its own research activities.

1. World e-Parliament Conference 2016
#eParliament
28-30 June 2016 // Chamber of Deputies of Chile // Valparaiso
Open Parliaments – Engaged Citizens
Republic of Serbia

2. Serbian parliament has made a great effort in recent period in order to
enable citizens to have closer look at its work thus giving them opportunity
to take active part in decision-making process, stressing the importance of
civil society as an important partner and link in communication between
citizens and parliament. During realization of the Project: “Strengthening of
the Oversight Role of the Parliament”, implemented in cooperation with
UNDP and Swiss Agency for Development from 2011 to 2015, the Serbian
Parliament achieved three major results:
1.Parliament’s oversight role over the Executive power has significantly
improved;
2.Conditions have been created for the opening of Government data within
the Portal for tracking the public budget expenditures.
3.Parliament has established better cooperation with citizens and
representatives of civil sector in the Republic of Serbia.

3. Portal for Oversight of Public
Finance
 Electronic link between the Treasury and Parliament providing MPs with timely
information on State budget expenditures (as opposed to previous hard copy
reporting of the Executive to the Parliament)
 Developed from 2011 to 2015 through UNDP/SDC project
 Inspired by SIGA Brasil and World e-Parliament Report 2008
 Legal basis: National Anticorruption Strategy
 Data:
Pre-defined reports show:
a. Identification of direct budget user
b. Execution of budget
c. Execution of the budget based on the
source of funding
d. Execution of the budget based on the
economic classification (purpose of funding)
Dynamic reports show:
a. Search based on user request

4. The Serbian Parliament has been continuously advancing its scrutiny
through the following institutes:
1.Members of Parliament are entitled to ask government questions
twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, in accordance with the
Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly of the Republic of
Serbia. On top of this, the members of the Government are obliged to
personally answer the MP’s questions on the last Thursday of the
month.

5. 2. During the period of 3 years, 34 public hearings have been held,
regarding very wide range of topics such as:
 prevention of the violence against women;
 cybercrime;
 improving of the production and the export of raspberries;
 online system which enables citizens to refer petitions regarding
public hearing’s topics, has been also established – web page.
3. The cooperation between the Parliament and the independent
bodies has become more functional; not only through regular
reviews of their reports in the Parliament but also through relevant
parliamentary committees monitoring more frequently the
implementation of their recommendations.

6. 4. 11 Mobile Parliamentary Committees session took place during the
2014 – 2015 period. Some of the results are:
 payment of overdue subsidies for farmers;
 resolving problems concerning the agricultural land etc.
5. With the help of recently established portal “Open Parliament”
citizens have easy access to the information about activities and
work of the parliament.
6. Live streaming of the parliament’s sessions has motivated citizens to
take more active part in solving their own problems. The National
Assembly’s website features easy access to exposures of every
single MP of current convocation as well as to daily and weekly
reports covering plenary and committee's sessions. The site also
features internal and external Bulletins "Kvorum" and "Bilten" aimed
at outreach to citizens and media. The NARS website will also feature
two-way communication with citizens for public hearing submissions
and portal reports on public expenditures.

7. 7. Another joint attempt at public participation and constituency
work was the National TV Debate featuring MPs from particular
region speaking on regional topics in a mobile studio.
8. Several important and very active informal cross-party caucuses
have been founded in the Serbian parliament: Women’s
Parliamentary Network, National branch of the GOPAC, Economic
Caucus, the “Green” group, Energy Policy Forum, Parliamentary
Group for Open Parliament etc.

8. Three most important achievements of Women’s Parliamentary Network
and GOPAC in Serbia are:
1.Serbia, along with Great Britain, became the only European country in
which sexual assault does not become obsolete, as a result of Women’s
Parliamentary Network’s initiative to amend the Criminal Code.
2.Women’s Parliamentary Network of Serbia initiated the networking of
female MPs from 11 countries of south east Europe with the goal of
putting the joint effort in amending laws regarding gender equality.
3.For the first time in the history of Serbia gender budgeting, better
utilization of budgetary resources by gender, became integral part of the
Budget Law for year 2016; thanks to activity of Women’s Parliamentary
Network 50 local councilors networks have been created in recent
period.

9. 1. National branch of GOPAC Serbia, together with Parliamentary
Committee for the control of Public Finances initiated the
formation of working group for creating the Portal for the
oversight of the public finances. This portal allows MPs and other
specialized parliament’s structures the monitoring of all the
incomes and expenditures in the state budget on the daily basis.
Outcome: The Portal was put in action on December 1, 2015.
2. GOPAC Serbia initiated regional cooperation in fighting against
corruption and also helped establishing national branches of
GOPAC in other countries of the region.
3. GOPAC Serbia initiated the signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding at an international conference “Transparency and
accountability for effective control” held in Belgrade on 22-23 May
2015 with the aim to promote the need to combat corruption.


10. Activities and results of Women’s Parliamentary Network and GOPAC
Serbia can be followed at blogs and the twitter of this two informal
groups:
https://zpmsrbijawordpress.com and twitter@zpmsrbija
https://gopacsrbijawordpress.com and twitter@gopacsrbija

11.  Parliamentary Group for Open Parliament /twitter@O_Parlament/
was founded in September 2015, aiming to increase both the
visibility of the Parliament and positive perceptions of citizens
towards this institution.
Activities:
• Marking the Week of Parliamentarism in Serbia from October 19
till October 24, 2015. (with participation of 3500 citizens)
• The Index of openness and transparency of Parliaments of
Western Balkan countries has been recently published, hence
placing Serbian Parliament in one of leading position,
alongside with the Parliament of Montenegro.

12.  The program and activities of informal Parliamentary “Greens”
group /twitter@zelenisrbije/ have been dedicated to improving
legislative framework in the field of environmental protection and
faster opening of chapters in negotiations of Serbia and the EU
regarding this particular issue.
 Economic caucus /twitter@ekon_kokus/ has focused its activities
on improving general business environment in the Republic of
Serbia. This informal group submitted numerous amendments
regarding financial laws, most of which were accepted.

13. The public opinion poll by CESID has signaled 8% increase of positive
perception of citizens regarding the National Assembly of the
Republic of Serbia. The report can be found on the web page of the
Serbian Parliament.
What else should be done:
•The citizens are to be additionally informed about possibilities of their
more intensive participation in the parliamentary activities.
•It is necessary to stabilize two-way communication with citizens and
civil society in order to collect submissions of citizens at public
hearings.
•It is necessary to provide an access to all submitted amendments
within the electronic parliament system and also to establish e-
module for submitting commentaries on draft laws.
•Efficient use of the Portal for the oversight of public finances with the
ultimate goal of achieving a strong anti- corruptive effect.
•Local authorities should implement all the positive experiences in
their work and overall activities.

14. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Dubravka Filipovski
Member of Parliament of the Republic of Serbia
Tel: + 381 63 559550
Email: dubravkafilipovski@gmail.com
twitter: @DubravkaFilipov