The Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Aleksandar Martinović, PhD, has met today with the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade, Tobias Flessenkemper, with whom he discussed the continuation of cooperation between the Ministry and the Council of Europe and joint projects in order to improve the work of local self-governments.
The interlocutors have expressed their satisfaction with the results of the Programme “Human Resources Management in Local Self-Government – Phase 2” and discussed potential future activities in this area, which would include all cities and municipalities in Serbia.
Emphasizing that local self-government is the closest to citizens and the first place for exercising many of their rights and obligations, Martinović has stated that continued cooperation in this matter would contribute to the further development of human resources at the local level and, consequently, to better satisfaction of citizens’ daily needs.
The minister has added that the education of civil servants and employees in Local Self-government Units, which is carried out by the National Academy of Public Administration, is of particular importance due to the synchronized action at all levels of administration and the establishment of service standards for all forms of communication between the citizens and the administration.
Martinović has also introduced Flessenkemper to the success achieved by the Republic of Serbia in the field of digitization, stressing that the development of eGovernment had saved approximately 350 million hours of waiting for the citizens.
Given that the 20th anniversary of Serbia’s admission to the Council of Europe will be marked next year, the activities that could be organized on that occasion have also been discussed at the meeting.