Optimus - Center for Good Governance

The economic crisis has had a significant impact on the administrative organization of the different EU member states as well as other countries in Europe. In particular, it has affected the process and the reasoning behind resource allocation at the regional and/or local level. A general renewal of the institutional and territorial framework can be observed. Public authorities are experimenting new measures which combine different levels of governments or aggregate and foster cooperation between local governments.

Symposium was structured against this background, with the following topics covered: Adaptation of Public Service and Activity Management Simplification, Shift in Competences and Powers Between Different Levels of Government, Shift of Competences and Powers Between National Governments and Local and Regional Authorities, Simplification at local level: is joint administration the solution?

OPTIMUS representatives participated on the Session III focusing on the tools used to get out of the crisis. The first workshop of the Session III put the emphasis on inter-municipal cooperation and the different ways to merge/ simplify services at municipal levels, while the subsequent one continued the debate in favor and/or against joint administration at local level, with proposals of new solutions.

Ms. Kocevic presented the Project “Improving Environment for Businesses on the Local Level through Regulatory Reform” with the special highlights on the e-Registry of administrative procedures as the tool for the full access to information for businesses and citizens regarding the submission of requests for issuing different permits, licenses and approvals.

The subject of Ms. Milanovic’s presentation was related to challenges Serbian municipalities are facing with before and when establishing inter-municipal partnerships, caused by deficiencies in legal framework and shifts in process of (de)centralization lasting for three decades, and regionalization, concept actual in Serbia in the past decade.

The Symposium was great opportunity to present the Project achievements so far as well as to share experiences and establish the network with relevant European actors in the field of regional and local government.