The Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia (SIPRU) organized a Summer School for Social Inclusion in Vrnjacka Banja, dedicated to local self-governments, held from 10th to 13th July 2017. The Summer School was attended by 15 representatives of municipalities from the third and fourth development groups, which so far have not had many opportunities for networking through international projects.

On this occasion, Marina Tadic, on behalf of the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society, presented the EU program "Europe for Citizens", its priorities for the forthcoming period, as well as the current call for proposals that was opened on September 1st, 2017. Participants discussed the possibilities of cooperation between local self-governments and civil society organizations within this program, as well as the importance of providing stable sources for co-financing EU projects.

The Summer School was realized with the aim of contributing to achieving the objectives of the Action Plan for Chapter 23, in the part relating to the realization of basic rights and addressing key issues from the Chapter 19 related to the areas of social policy and employment. Some of the topics within the Summer School were: use of databases, participatory approach in preparing strategic documents, intersectoral cooperation, gender equality, program budgeting, monitoring and evaluation of strategic documents, etc. Speakers were the representatives of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, the Gender Equality Coordination Body, the Ministry of European Integration, the SIPRU Team and the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society.

Through the Summer School, participants were given the opportunity to exchange examples of good practice, together identify the best ways to promote their municipalities, and access to information on available funds within the European integration process in the future.