On 10 February 2015, a working meeting of the representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy and CSOs was held. The meeting was organized as part of the process of drafting the new Law on Amendments to the Law on Social Protection by the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Republic of Serbia. The goal of the meeting was to allow to the representatives of CSOs to contribute with their comments to the improvement of the legal framework in this area.

Praxis attended the meeting and gave proposals the adoption of which would contribute to easier exercise of the right to social protection. Thus, the following was requested:

•    to delete the Article 84 of the Law on Social Protection, which envisages the obligation of the submitter of request for cash social assistance to file a lawsuit against a cousin who are obliged to support them in accordance with the Family Law,
•    to explicitly envisage the obligation of social welfare centres to collect evidence ex officio.

The endeavor to ensure an easier access to rights is evident also in the proposals that came from representatives of many other CSOs. One of the proposed measures referred to the need to limit the authorisations of social welfare centre when determining the amount of lost income in the procedure of acknowledgment of the right to cash social assistance. It has been proposed to leave out the time limitation that envisages that the right to cash social assistance belongs to individuals fit to work in the period of nine months within a calendar year.

Since many proposals given by CSOs are aimed at enabling the easier way of exercising the right to social protection, including the right to financial support, it is necessary to consider Decree on Measures of Social Inclusion of Beneficiaries of Cash Social Assistance whose abolition was requested by numerous CSOs. Leaving this Decree in force would mean that participation of CSOs in the process of change of the Law on Social Protection in its very important part would boil down to formal participation of the representatives of civil society organizations, without crucial respect for their proposals.

However, it remains to see to what extent the amendments of the Law on Social Protection will reflect the proposals presented at the working meeting. It was announced in the report from the meeting that following the first working Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Social Protection, the Ministry will explain why certain comments, fully or partially, are not integrated in the text of the Draft, and additional delivery or refining of comments will be later possible.

Praxis will continue monitoring the amending of the Law on Social Protection and advocate for adoption of solutions that would facilitate the access to the right to social protection.