The attending were greeted by Foreign Affairs Committee Deputy Chairperson Dubravka Filipovski who said she hoped the three-day seminar, lectures and panels would yield some constructive solutions and conclusions. She said that it is Serbia’s objective to ensure full gender across the board, mentioning to that effect that 37% of Serbian MPs are women. Filipovski stressed that despite these significant results, Serbia should continue to push to include more women into the decision-making process.

“That is why Serbia is preparing a new, modern and better gender equality law building on the best practice examples of the countries in the region and Europe at large, to secure an even better social position for women”, said Filipovski.

Margareta Eklund, President of the Freja Academy, said that it is the Forum’s vision to establish a platform for European civil society organizations to enhance the understanding of equal opportunities and promote democracy and peace which in turn stimulate the long-term development of social and economic capacities.

Joachim Waern, Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Sweden, said that equal opportunities and gender equality may be a matter of course in Sweden, but he is well aware that that is not the case everywhere in the world and he is ready to promote the idea of equal opportunities at this year’s forum.
Jelena Tadzic, representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), spoke about the organization’s cooperation with the National Assembly, in particular the results achieved by the Women’s Parliamentary Network highlighting its members’ contribution to the cause by sharing their experiences beyond Serbia.

This year’s Freja Forum will be focusing on equal opportunities, democracy and challenges of the digital future, and will, in the period between 9 – 11 November, be covering a series of seminars, workshops, business meetings and informal working meetings.

The topics of the seminar are digital challenges of new technologies to employers and employees alike, as well as moral and legal aspects of interpersonal relationships through networking.

In the panels, the participants will discuss the development of regional policies connected to the EU accession process, young digital experts and the interrelationship between young people and digitalisation through a series of segments.

The Freja Academy is a part of the Freja Forum with the objective to promote the civil society organizations to strengthen their role and work to be an important factor in the civil society, based on values of democracy and equal opportunities. The participants can choose between four parallel training sessions. After participating in one of session A-C, the participant will receive a certificate.