At the proposal of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted a set of nine laws today, which represent a continuation of efforts to transform the administration into a more efficient, professional and modern service of all Serbian citizens . “Under the adopted Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government, we encourage citizens’ initiative, we introduce the obligation of towns and municipalities to consult citizens on the part of the budget relating to investments whereby promoting citizens’ participation in the passing of policies, to which we are bound by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the Code of Good Governance and the Public administration,” said Minister Branko Ružić upon the passing of the set of laws. “The personal responsibility of each of us towards the citizens who pay us implies that they should be involved in policy making, amendments to the Law on Public Administration have therefore been adopted, whereby we are already turning the established practice in MPALSG of conducting public consultations in the drafting stage of the law into an obligation for all state authorities, “the Minister said. One of the main goals of amendments to legislation is also the optimization of the work of local self-governments through the reduction of the number of local officials as compared to the number of inhabitants of the municipality or town. “We encourage municipalities and towns to cooperate more and assist each other in the event of a lack of capacity, and we give back the old role to community centers in connecting citizens with the local self-government,” Ružić emphasized. Amendments to the Law on the Civil Registries, which ensure that the electronic registration of the data from the registries is the first and obligatory, will contribute to the efficiency of the administration and faster service provision to citizens. In addition to issuing a certificates anywhere in Serbia, this will now also be possible abroad, since the civil status data kept by diplomatic and consular missions have been transferred to the Civil Status Registry. This proposal envisages the registration of sex change in the registries, based on the certificate of a health care institution, which constitutes implementation of a measure for accepting gender diversity as an integral part of a modern European society. Minister Ružić pointed out that one of the greatest treasures of our society is the fact that every eighth male or female citizen of our country is a person belonging to a national minority. “Many European countries are envious of our minority policies, however our work is not finished and it is not time-limited, thus Serbia adopted amendments to improve the conditions for the realization of minority rights, such as writing toponyms in minority languages, positive discrimination in employment, etc.”. Recalling that the employees in the public administration are the main drivers of the reforms, he assessed that the adopted draft laws on labor and salaries in public agencies are just going to improve the management of human resources and finances – introducing mandatory competitions and examinations of people who are employed in agencies, we provide greater expertise of board members and directors, and better control of expenditures. “I am sure that thanks to the new legal solutions we will be much closer to achieving the common goal that all citizens in all segments of the society will be satisfied with the realization of rights and obligations, as well as public officials, bearers of all these changes,” concluded Minister Ružić.