“Inter-municipal cooperation is of great significance for improving the development of the entire local self-government system – primarily through the joint efficient, economical and purposeful performance of tasks under the jurisdiction of Local Self-government Units, all with the aim of providing services of higher quality to the citizens, which is the focus of the Public Administration Reform” , the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Aleksandar Martinović, PhD, has said at the anniversary 50th General Assembly of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities.
He has explained that the basis for establishing this type of cooperation stems from significant differences in the capacities of Local Self-government Units, pointing out that the association of towns and municipalities opens up space for the implementation of future decentralization processes.
Martinović has emphasized that in the past few years, the Ministry undertook a significant number of activities in the field of improving the local self-government system and strengthening the capacities of towns and municipalities, and that, with the aim of further motivating them to join forces, it conducted three Public Calls for providing support to the establishment or development of existing inter-municipal cooperation, within the Inter-Municipal Cooperation Fund.
“The implementation of the first two Public Calls had resulted in support to the establishment of inter-municipal cooperation for a total of 46 Local Self-government Units. At the end of last month, the third Public Call was concluded, and we expect the continuation of the good trend of support to the association of towns and municipalities,” the minister has said.
He has added that with the latest amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government, the issue of inter-municipal cooperation was elaborated in more detail, which, as he has stated, laid a good foundation for the development of this institute in the future.
In addition to the welcoming addresses of the president of SCTM and the Mayor of Leskovac, Goran Cvetanović, PhD, and the Mayor of Belgrade on behalf of the host city of the Assembly, Aleksandar Šapić, the Ambassador Emanuele Giaufret, Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Urs Schmid, Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation in the Republic of Serbia, and Pierre Cochard, Ambassador of the French Republic to the Republic of Serbia, have also made an address at this event.
The SCTM General Assembly is the most important gathering of representatives of local self-government during the year. The anniversary 50th General Assembly is organized within the project “SCTM Institutional support – Phase Three“, which is implemented by SCTM and supported by the Government of Switzerland, while the main topic of today’s event is the role and importance of the association of towns and municipalities in the development of local self-government.
Photo gallery – source: SCTM
