The GOPAC National Branch contributed to the workshop, organised for MPs, by, first and foremost, understanding the importance of the BI programme (Building Integrity) launched in 2007 to assist countries with strengthening transparency, accountability and integrity in the defence and security sector. The BI programme raises awareness on corruption and its implications for stability and peace. The BI programme’s practical experiences have been developed and implemented in cooperation with a series of participants among them international organisations, civil society and MPs. They include a self-assessment questionnaire and peer review process (detailed overview, education and training activities, publications and experts in various fields).
The workshop offered the opportunity to review the cooperation experiences and mechanisms and explore how they can be improved in a more systematic way which would in turn contribute to the improvement of the parliament’s role within the NATO BI programme.
The host of the workshop, organised by NATO in consultation with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and GOPAC, was the Austrian Government and the International Anti-Corruption Academy. The workshop contributed to the development of closer ties with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Olgica Batic, president of GOPAC National Branch Serbia, appeared as disputant in one of the two sub-workshops on the behalf of the GOPAC National Branch Serbia. The workshop was also attended by Stefana Miladinovic, GOPAC National Branch secretary, and Marija Obradovic, GOPAC National Branch member.
In addition to the two other disputants Roy Culler (Canada) and Eva Shinagel (USA), Olgica Batic underlined the importance and goals of GOPAC, also speaking of the work and goals of the Serbian branch, potential anti-corruption mechanisms and the leading role of parliamentarians in the anti-corruption struggle, which needs to be improved and the awareness of which needs to be raised, as carriers of the legislative and control role, which puts them at the forefront of the fight against this plague of modern society.

In addition to Serbia, Canada and the US, the workshop was attended by parliamentarians from Armenia, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Latvia, Germany, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Australia, Greece, Hungary and Ukraine.

The GOPAC members also had the opportunity to inform GOPAC Secretariat Executive Director Akaash Maharaj about the work of GOPAC Serbia, who endorsed its further work and promotion of GOPAC ideas.