Regional meeting will bring together around 45 participants, including members of parliament, representatives of governments, services of parliaments and non-governmental organizations from 13 countries, including the countries of the region, as well as representatives of several international organizations. On behalf of the host, the meeting will be opened by the Vice-President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Suljo Mustafić, who is at the same time member of the Legislative Openness Working Group.

The focus of the meeting will be on the issues of parliamentary openness, within which best practices in publication and use of parliamentary information will be considered, the application of new technologies in order to encourage greater involvement of citizens in parliamentary activities and strengthening of the role of parliament in the Open Government Partnership.

The date for holding the Regional meeting, co-organized by the Parliament of Montenegro and the Legislative Openness Working Group, was selected to mark the International Day of Democracy – 15 September (http://www.ipu.org/dem-e/idd/overview.htm), as well as Global Legislative Openness Week. The topic of this year's Day of Democracy, which will be marked by many other parliaments around the world, is "Youth Participation in Democracy".

Legislative Openness Working Group, co-chaired by Chile's Congress and the National Democratic Institute, was formed in October 2013, at the Open Government Partnership Annual Summit held in London. The objective of the Working Group is to promote the exchange of good practices between parliaments, governments and civil society organizations in terms of improving the openness of the legislative process, including the exchange of information about the activities parliaments and governments take to enable greater civic engagement in the legislative process.

Working Group has based its work on the principles contained in the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, the act which was supported by over 140 civil society organizations in over 75 countries worldwide, including 50 countries in the OSCE. Members of the Working Group are representatives of parliaments, governments and civil society organizations from more than 20 countries participating in Open Government Partnership, including representatives of the Parliament of Montenegro.

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Information for the media:

Regional Meeting of the Legislative Openness Working Group will be held at Hotel "Ramada".

The meeting will be open for journalists.