Assistant Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Saša Mogić assessed that citizens can use legal opportunities and participate in the creation of local policies at the forum on the occasion of the European Local Democracy Week.
The forum was organized at the Faculty of Political Sciences by the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities within the program “Strengthening Local Self-Governments in Serbia on the Road to the EU – Phase 2”, funded by the Government of Sweden.
Mogić assessed that the broader context of citizen participation in public affairs is the realization of citizens’ sovereignty.
He emphasized that the amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government adopted in 2018 established mechanisms for citizen participation and called on citizens to use the legal opportunities.
“We have introduced the obligation of local self-governments to involve citizens in the adoption of the investment part of the budget and ask them where and what they want to see done in their environment,” said Mogić.
He reminded that from this year, the Ministry started awarding prizes to cities and municipalities for the best examples in good governance, and one of the criteria was transparency and public participation in the work.
Also, citizens are encouraged to launch initiatives that are important to their environment, and the amendments to the Law stipulate that five percent of citizens with the right to vote are now needed to launch a citizens’ initiative.
He said that local self-government units should now include citizens in the process of preparing laws, strategic and other public policy documents.
“There are different channels of communication between citizens and local authorities, and the requests of citizens should be directed to the channel that is most appropriate for their interests to be realized,” he said.
Mogić also reminded that the drafting of the Reform of the local self-government system programme began last year, and assessed that this was the first time that the process of drafting such a strategic document had begun.