24 agreements on cooperation in the areas of property management, local planning, and program budgeting

The Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) within the Exchange 5 Program concluded 24 agreements on cooperation on June 12, 2019 in Belgrade with towns and municipalities in the areas of property management, local planning, and program budgeting. The Exchange 5 program is funded by the European Union from the IPA 2014 allocation and implemented by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities as an implementing partner.

At the ceremony organized on this occasion, State Secretary at the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Ivan Bosnjak said that the success of local self-governments in improving their work was at the same time a success of Serbia on the road to European integration.

Steffen Hudolin, Head of Operations 2 in the Delegation of the European Union, said that the Exchange Program, through all phases over the last 15 years, forms an integral part of the process in which Serbia, with the support of the EU, makes efforts to improve governance and improve the level of services in local self-governments to encourage local development.

Djordje Stanicic, Secretary General of the SCTM, emphasized that Exchange 5 under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance - IPA 2014, is among the first to be implemented by Serbia through the Contracting Authority of the Ministry of Finance since it has been assigned to manage EU funds.

The Exchange 5 program consists of two components, the first is property management, while the second focuses on local planning and program budgeting.

Within the first component of the Program, expert assistance will be provided under these agreements in the form of specially designed support packages to meet the needs of the town/municipality in the area of property management for 20 local self-governments. The following towns/municipalities will receive support: Trgoviste, Novi Pazar, Bela Palanka, Raca, Trstenik, Mionica, Crna Trava, Varvarian, Svilajnac, Vrnjacka Banja, Kikinda, Nova Varos, Ljubovija, Prijepolje, Babusnica, Sabac, Belgrade, Tutin, Sjenica, and Gadzin Han.

Direct technical support for the process of local planning and program budgeting, under Component 2, is received by four new local self-governments: Nova Varos, Kanjiza, Trstenik and Pancevo, in addition to the 8 selected earlier in the previous call for proposals under the Program.