Inter-municipal cooperation in Serbia brings benefits, such as improving the quality of life of local self-government citizens, as well as cheaper services. Also, inter-municipal cooperation is good for regional development, i.e. development of the whole of Serbia. The state needs to establish a national system of encouraging inter-municipal cooperation, because this kind of cooperation brings savings, community and solidarity to local self-governments in our country.
These are the main conclusions of the panel "Inter-Municipal Cooperation in Serbia - Legal Framework and Good Practice", which was held within the framework of the 47th Assembly of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM).
Sasa Mogic, Assistant Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, reminded that last year the National Assembly adopted the Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government and Amendments to the Law on Public Administration.
These two laws regulate complementary the area of inter-municipal cooperation in a new, holistic way. “Previously, we had the possibility for municipalities to cooperate only on some issues; however, many of these were not regulated by law. By adopting the amendments to these two laws, it became crucial to open the space for all local self-government affairs to be jointly carried out by inter-municipal partnerships. Therefore, not only elective but delegated tasks can be done this way. Of all the elements that an inter-municipal agreement would have to contain, I would also mention the termination of the agreement itself, i.e. when a local self-government decides to withdraw from the agreement. The key elements are, of course, funding, the people who need to do the jobs that the municipalities agree on, the joint services…”, said Mogic.
He also spoke about delegated jobs that were originally delegated to state bodies, but these jobs were delegated to local self-governments by these laws, "and when local self-governments decide to do some work together or part of that work, consent must also be given by state bodies, above all the line Ministry, as well as the Government of Serbia". According to him, the procedure for establishing inter-municipal cooperation is not complicated now.
“The first association for the practice of establishing an inter-municipal agreement is utilities. The amendments to these two laws created the possibility to open space in the administrative part for the establishment of new co-operation which did not exist so far”, said Mogic.
Novak Gajic, Head of the SCTM Political System Department, stated that the SCTM is the "embodiment" of inter-municipal co-operation, since it was established by a gathering of leaders of 23 Yugoslav towns in 1953. Gajic added that at the 1st Standing Conference General Assembly they agreed to address the need for cooperation by institutionalizing it through the founding of their organization.
"There are two main reasons why SCTM is important for inter-municipal cooperation. One is universal and the other is not specific to Serbia, but it is particularly important at the moment. The universal reason is that inter-municipal cooperation should lead to the effects of economies of scale, that by pooling, pooling resources around something will improve the quality of service provided by local self-government, as well as cheaper service and savings", said Gajic.
Another reason - which is especially important for Serbia, Gajic added, is something that can be called the capacity shortage of many smaller municipalities in our country.
“Local self-government in Serbia is monotypic, which means that the largest and smallest local self-government units have the same competencies, but the capacities to exercise those responsibilities through the performance of their jobs are significantly different. For example, under the Law on Local Self-Government, each municipality must have at least two lawyers. It is not a common situation that they are the only lawyers in the local self-government and have to perform different tasks, from patient protection to public procurement. The problem is that the inability to exercise the full capacity of all the jobs and responsibilities of local self-government leads to inequality of citizens”, Gajic said.
He noted that the SCTM policy on inter-municipal cooperation was defined and adopted in 2011. In defining inter-municipal cooperation, Gajic added, the SCTM paid attention to practice and demand.
"When it comes to practice, for example, there is cooperation in utilities, regional development agencies across Serbia ... In terms of demand, sometimes there is will, but the difficulties are still there. That is why it was important for us to make legal changes. With the current legislative changes, we have been provided with a legally-coordinated system in which municipalities can cope. The earlier version of the law was very liberal, but not at all encouraging”, Gajic said.
Another form of support of the SCTM, he added, is direct support through the provision of services to the SCTM members, which is a series of models of inter-municipal cooperation agreements that should serve as role models for local self-governments, such as a guide on how they can find specific legal solutions.
"The SCTM has done two modalities of cooperation - one is the establishment of a joint service and the other is the assignment of tasks of one municipality to another. At the very beginning, a methodology for making this type of agreement was drawn up. The first set of 11 models in different areas was used for testing, so we resolved various concerns. These models are on the SCTM website. We will also be working on other models, and we are constantly working on advisory support, because there is an interest, and those SCTM members should be supported”, Gajic emphasized.
The municipalities of Aleksandrovac, Blace, Brus and the Town of Krusevac have decided to work together on the ecological protection of Lake Celije. Jasmina Palurovic, the Mayor of Krusevac, spoke about this. She stated that the legal framework allowed representatives of these local self-governments not to "wander" when it came to inter-municipal cooperation in the protection of Lake Celije, but to have a common field in which they would find common interest.
Palurovic explained that Lake Celije serves to supply water to Krusevac and other municipalities, not including Brus and Blace, which are supplied from other sources of their own.
“But Brus and Blace have links to Lake Celije as border municipalities whose wastewater, in heavy rainfall, enters the water of Lake Celije, which serves the Town of Krusevac and other municipalities in the district as drinking water supply. Our interest was obvious - to protect Lake Celije, to help the Brus and Blace municipalities manage their wastewater and thus help us as well. We have signed memorandums of cooperation, it remains to be seen how all this will work in the coming period, especially as far as finances are concerned, for the simple reason that Brus and Blace will not be able to bear the entire cost", said Mayor Krusevac.
She commended the local self-governments Brus and Blace for their utmost efforts to come up with all the requirements and procedures required to enter the Lake Celije protection business. She stated that these municipalities received water treatment plants through projects.
"We met the first deadlines by getting Brus and Blace to wastewater treatment projects. Now these plants have to be put into operation", Palurovic explained.
Sasa Mogic then stated that inter-municipal cooperation involves considering the interests and needs that exist in different local self-governments, regardless of their size and their financial and human resources.
"The protection of Lake Celije is a great example of inter-municipal cooperation, where the starting point is the lack of existing capacities in one local self-government, however, awareness of the effect of service delivery and quality of life of citizens is what all of us should aim at".
Palurovic then said that the Town of Krusevac had resolved the wastewater issue and that she was trying to help the municipalities of Aleksandrovac, Brus and Blace with their experiences to solve the wastewater problem as well.
Inter-municipal cooperation on mobility and communication of persons with disabilities brought together five partners - Belgrade, Novi Sad and three Belgrade municipalities Zvezdara, Savski Venac, and Vracar.
Irena Lakobrija Delic, Head of the Projects Department in the Belgrade Municipality of Vracar, explained that the initiative for inter-municipal cooperation originated from that city municipality, which last year adopted the Accessibility Improvement Strategy for the period 2018-2025.
"It has been found necessary to introduce innovative services and affordable technologies. The same challenges faced by persons with disabilities in partner municipalities are the same. First of all, in addition to architectural barriers, there are information and communication barriers, insufficient information on Braille, audio format, services provided by sign language interpreters are not provided to a sufficient extent, and it comes to overlapping of services, which leads to higher costs", explained Lakobrija Delić.
According to her, the aim of this inter-municipal cooperation is to set up a support service in communication of mobility, which will increase the availability of information and services to persons with disabilities. On the other hand, she added, the efficiency and effectiveness of the work will be increased.
"Each partner participates in capacities - personnel, material and technical. The Municipality of Vracar will provide the space and procure the goods envisaged by this project. We will create an SOS application, an application with service information, and obtain a printer in Braille. All partners will be able to use these goods. The City of Belgrade will make information available and well-timed through Beokom. All partners will then adapt that information in audio format, sign language... And everyone will be able to print informational materials in Braille. The Braille printer will be in Novi Sad because Novi Sad is the European Capital of Culture in 2021 and will have the greatest need to print information material”, said Irena Lakobrija Delić, adding that this is a pioneering endeavor that fosters a spirit of solidarity and community.
As many as 17 towns and municipalities in the West Morava River Basin have decided to cooperate on reducing flood risk.
Zdravko Maksimovic, Head of the Department for Civil Protection Affairs in the Town of Kraljevo, said that this inter-municipal cooperation was a direct consequence of an elemental disaster - the 2014 flood. That year, he added, towns and municipalities did not have a broadly defined notion of inter-municipal cooperation, which was changed by the Amendments to the Law.
"When disasters happen, they don't bypass basic utilities either, so in that context, in 2014 we were defeated. For two years we have been searching for the best model of cooperation. It is not only a question of local self-governments, it is also a question of economy, non-governmental sector, all institutions and individuals who can contribute to inter-municipal cooperation, on which they also depend", said Maksimović.
As he said, a functional cooperation was made in response to all future risks that disasters can serve, all in protection of what could be endangered - human lives and property.
"Important detail is the significant support of the SCTM and the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, as well as the Office of Public Investment Management, UNDP, the World Bank ... Through the decades of work of these international organizations, we have been able to see their experiences when it comes to disasters. The aggravating circumstance for us was that we did not have successful models that we could look up to. Our model is now under the magnifying glass of world organizations”, explained Maksimovic.
In terms of low capacity, he added, this inter-municipal cooperation is the “pearl” that catastrophic floods from 2014 ejected.
When he was asked what was the biggest challenge in establishing cooperation, given the 17 local self-governments involved, Maksimovic said that the hardest part was presenting the future concept of organization and planning when it came to reducing disaster risk.
"That is why we spent two to three years only in the preparation of the previous protocol on cooperation, and after two more years in the preparation of the agreement. But, all this will make these agreements survive and last", Maksimovic emphasized. According to him, five protocols and one inter-municipal cooperation agreement have been signed so far in the West Morava Basin. He hopes that there will be a total of 10 agreements covering all or at least most local self-governments in Serbia.
"The missing link we will work on in the coming period is civil protection. We used to have it and were proud with that system. We have easily renounced the civil protection system. I hope that, through the education system and other institutions, we will be able to establish a civil protection system, because that is the only effective response to disasters", concluded Maksimovic.
Palurovic said that the Town of Krusevac is also in the project of inter-municipal cooperation of the West Morava Basin.
"Emergency and risk management experiences, in cooperation with other local self-governments, should be directed towards preventive action. This agreement of the West Morava Basin benefits everyone who is on the river course. I hope that our many years of work will be crowned by the signing of the agreement, and that we will improve the weaknesses. Our work is yet to come ... The ultimate benefits are the well-being of citizens, cheaper services, and improving the quality of life", Palurovic said.
Novak Gajic emphasized that the future of inter-municipal cooperation will depend on how much is invested in it.
"The SCTM will continue to provide direct support to its membership. There is a demand, we get questions from the municipalities, they ask for information ... There is a very important system part here, working with the state to improve the system framework. The first part of our organization's policy in this area is largely met by last year's Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government. We are currently making a list of different provisions in different laws that make inter-municipal cooperation more or less difficult. Our goal is to make changes to these solutions. We will formulate an initiative that will be facing the new convocation of the SCTM Presidency and which will be addressed to various ministries", Gajic emphasized.
He added that it was important for the SCTM to convince the state that it also benefited from inter-municipal cooperation that practically brought about the effects of regional cooperation.
"Our goal is to bring that state's conviction to a national system of encouraging inter-municipal cooperation", Gajic said.
Mogic reminded that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government is starting to prepare the reform of the local self-government system, a comprehensive and for the first time in Serbia strategic document that should deal with the planning of changes in local self-governments.
"I deeply believe that inter-municipal cooperation is a process that should become one of the most dominant in Serbia in the coming years, because it is one way of preventing deficiencies that exist objectively in local self-governments", Mogic said, adding that the state must play an active role in setting up a national fund to encourage and assist in establishing inter-municipal cooperation.
Palurovic finally emphasized that it is most important to meet the needs of citizens, and inter-municipal cooperation is seeing the well-being of citizens. Maksimovic added that rationality and savings are a crucial factor in inter-municipal cooperation, while Mogic believes that good foundations for that cooperation have been established.
The SCTM General Assembly was organized with the support of the program "Support to Local Self-Governments in Serbia on the Road to the EU - Second Phase", funded by the Government of Sweden.
