The first inaugural meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) of Serbia and the Committee of the Regions (CoR) was held in Brussels on 7 December 2015. At the very opening the meeting was addressed by Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia and Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-government Ms Kori Udovički, CoR President Mr. Markku Markkula, as well as two co-chairmen of the JCC Serbia-CoR Mr. Dejan Jovanović and Mr. Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos. Within the first roundtable discussion on The role of local and regional authorities in Serbia's accession, keynote speakers were Acting Director, DG NEAR, and Head of Unit for Serbia Ms Catherine Wendt, Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur on Serbia Mr. David McAllister and CoR Rapporteur for Enlargement strategy and main challenges 2015-2016 Ms Anna Magyar. In the second roundtable discussion on Western Balkans Migration Route - focus on Serbia participated members of the JCC Serbia-CoR.
All participants at the meeting agreed in their assessment that Serbia has done a lot in 2015 regarding the reform process in the country and welcomed the holding of the Second Intergovernmental Conference and the opening of the first chapters in the negotiations with the EU later this year. It was concluded that it is necessary to maintain the existing course, where the just started cooperation with the CoR is seen as added value to the whole process, especially at the level of local and regional authorities.