The EU Info Centre in Belgrade held a presentation of European integration experts network Team Europe Serbia.

Head of Communication at the EU Delegation to Serbia Ramunas Janušauskas said they were planning to take a more active approach in order to bring citizens closer to Team’s activities and professional capabilities.

Throughout the discussion, experts offered numerous ideas on how to provide citizens with information on Serbia’s EU integration process.

EU law expert and Team Europe Serbia Member Vladimir Medovic from Novi Sad said European integration was a rather politicised topic in Serbia which was why the citizens did not see tangible benefits of the process clearly.

He said that euro scepticism was on the rise year after year despite the fact that the number of experts dealing with European integration was higher than ever before.

According to Medovic, the root cause of rise in euro scepticism could be sought in heavy politicisation of European integration.

“When a certain topic becomes politicised, people tend to take irrational positions,” said Medovic.

Naim Leo Besiri of the Institute for European Affairs said the latest poll conducted in July 2016 showed that 53 per cent of the youth aged 18-29 were against Serbia’s EU membership.

“The July poll showed the lowest ever support for Serbia’s EU membership; only 41 per cent of people would vote in favour of membership,” said Leo Besiri.

He believes that young people in Serbia were not familiar enough with EU programmes even though, as he put it, they were eager to learn more about the possibilities of studying in the EU.

His counterpart from Team Europe Serbia Miroslav Tamburic of Forza NGO from Pozega said that from his personal experience he learned that people were more interested in narrow topics than high politics.

As an example, Tamburic cited Serbian farmers who were showing interest in IPARD Programme which they were very familiar with.

Maja Stojanovic from Gradjanske inicijative said it was necessary for citizens and academic community to engage in the issue of human and minority rights and contribute to improved practice and legislation in Serbia.

According to her, the best way to combat euro scepticism is through an honest EU discussion with the youth and other citizens.

Culture expert Lola Joksimovic said the culture, just as any other area, suffered from mystification and biases.

This is the product of previous poor policy which is why I believe the formation of Team Europe Serbia is useful for Serbian society which seems to have forgotten how to develop critical thinking, said Joksimovic.