Optimus - Center for Good Governance

The meeting was opened with the words of Secretary General of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM), Mr. Djordje Stanisic that "Support to Local Governments in Serbia in the EU Integration Process" and "Improvement of the Business Environment at the Local Level through Regulatory Reform," are the most important projects that the SCTM started realizing in this year.

Mr. Drndić Darko, manager of Component 1 of the SECO Project, responsible for improving the business environment at the local level, presented the news from the first six months of project implementation. Mr. Drndić mentioned that this Project and Sida Program of support to local governments in the process of EU integration which fourth component deals with similar issues, are set out in a practically similar time and therefore are cooperative.

The pilot municipalities Koceljeva, Požega and Lapovo already listed all the relevant administrative procedures. 20 different procedures that affect the business climate at the local level are identified and analyzed. It is proposed for the 15 procedures in the field of urban planning, legal-property issues, inspection issues and local tax administration issues, to design models to be implemented in ten pilot municipalities. In parallel with these models, simplified procedures will be developed as well as following manuals for their implementation and training. Early next year, implementation of simplified procedures will begin.

The next period would be followed by the selection of the first five municipalities and the signing of Memorandums of Understanding. “For the selection of municipalities, except for the criterion of smaller municipalities up to 30,000 inhabitants, and that they are preferably evenly geographically distributed, the criterion number one is the interest of municipalities to participate in this project”, Mr. Drndic said.

Component 2 of the SECO Project, implemented by the OPTIMUS-Centre for Good Governance, was presented by Katarina Milanovic, Deputy Director of the OPTIMUS. Mrs. Milanovic stressed out that this component would deal with regulatory reform at the local level, i.e. simplifying administrative procedures that are implemented in the cities/municipalities, at the request of the business sector. In the introductory phase of the project, a shortlist of cities/municipalities has been made and started the initial negotiations. After reviewing the situation in selected 15 municipalities, this number has been narrowed to six municipalities, out of which only three will be selected for the project implementation.
Also, a report which identifies the main problems that business sector faces in their work has been prepared, based on interviews with more than 20 representatives of business in six selected municipalities.

“Selected problems are basic problems that businesses face in their work, such as inadequate fiscal policies, large burdens on the local businesses, costly tendering process, the lack of financial and human resources, overlapping jurisdiction between the local and national level and inadequate and different application of the same regulations”, said Mrs. Milanovic.

During the regulatory reform, Component 2 will be focused on the problems that the business sector emphasized and would aim together with the SCTM and the Government Office of Regulatory Reform and Regulatory Impact Assessment to create recommendations for higher levels of administration.

A current developments and plans within the Sida Program "Support to Local Governments in Serbia in the Process of European Integration" were presented at the meeting.

In the first program component concerning the accession to EU and the implications of this process to local self-governments, component coordinator, Jana Jelic, pointed out that the first expected result is increased participation of local self-governments and the SCTM in the process of European integration.

Program component relating to the protection of the environment was presented by Miodrag Gluščević, coordinator of the component, adding that based on previous research, in order to answer the two key issues identified at the local level. The first is application of the law concerning protection of the environment at the local level and the related lack of or weak capacity of local self-governments to implement regulations. The other is a question of public participation at the local level in planning and decision making. The aim is to strengthen long-term capacity of local self-governments to respond to the demands of EU accession.

Promoting gender equality at local level is the third component of the program and, according to Rosete Aleksov, coordinator of the components, it has three main objectives: to strengthen the capacity of the SCTM, capacity building of local self-governments and raising awareness about gender equality.

Mr. Ivan Milivojevic, consultant of the team for the implementation of this component, spoke about amendments on activities within the component that is concerned with improving the business climate at the local level.
The team of project components has started creating the study of the business climate at the local level. “The study shall, except for the introductory considerations of national and local regulatory framework and current socio-economic situation, try to identify key indicators for the business climate at the local level, particularly all measures undertaken by the municipality in terms of improving the business climate. The indicators will be identified and monitored on an annual basis. By this, municipalities will get a tool to monitor its business climate and make mutual comparison of their capacities”, said Mr. Milivojevic.

The fifth program component of capacity building of the SCTM and its important aspects are: advocacy and lobbying in favor of local self-governments, providing services to local self-governments, better communication, information and support in international cooperation. The objective of the component is to strengthen the capacity of the SCTM to even better meet the needs of the local level that are more and more complex, given the dynamics of development of the local self-governments.