On 5 July 2021, the project “CSO Dialogue – Platform for Structural Dialogue in EU Integrations” organized sector-wide consultations in order to present and discuss the draft action document “EU for Improved Health and Social Protection, and Gender Equality”, programmed under IPA III 2020 Action Programme.
The event was attended by 34 representatives, of which four representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP), one representative from the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) and 29 representatives from civil society organizations.
Representatives from the lead institutions presented the document and underlined that it is the first programme developed under IPA III for the year 2022 and there are no 2021 projects in the sector on education, employment and social policy.
A discussion followed and included directions to improve the process for adoption of important documents whereby civil society organizations have requested to be involved in more transparent and organized manner. On the other hand, some civil society representatives shared comments in respect to content of the action document and, to some extent, requested additions and coverage of several crucial topics. To that, representatives from the lead institutions assured that all comments will be reviewed and that sometimes they are facing short deadlines when initial ideas need to be proposed. All in all, discussions only confirmed the importance of structural dialogue in the EU accession process.