Djilas: We Will Not Go To Meeting with Authorities if It Is Not Public

Dragan Djilas/BRANISLAV BOZIC

Party of Freedom and Justice leader Dragan Djilas has said that he will not participate in a round table between the authorities and opposition unless the entire discussion is open to the public.

The second round of talks between representatives of the ruling coalition and the opposition to discuss conditions for the next general elections will be held at the Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences on Aug. 9.

The Open Society Foundation Serbia (OSFS), the round table organizer, said that the first part of the round table, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., will be held according to the Chatham House Rule, without the presence of the media.

Press conferences are scheduled to start at 11:30 am.

Asked whether he would attend the meeting if the main discussion is not public, Djilas told the Aug. 8 edition of the Belgrade Danas Paper that he would not attend if it was not public.

The leader of the Party of Freedom and Justice stressed that he would participate only if the entire round table was accessible to the media.

The OSFS previously said that this round would focus on ways of funding the election campaign and improvements to funding controls.

Special attention will be paid to the use of public resources in the election campaign, office campaigning, transparency and control of funds.

Invitations have been sent to “representatives of the relevant political parties,” civil society organizations, and experts from the relevant faculties and institutions.

The first round table attended by the ruling coalition and opposition representatives was held on July 30, in what OSFS Executive Director Milan Antonijevic described as a constructive atmosphere.