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Ref. CG-005 (2017)

Monitoring visit by the Congress to Serbia

Strasbourg, 27 February 2017 - A delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe will carry out a monitoring visit to Serbia from 28 February to 2 March 2017. The delegation will examine the situation on local and regional democracy in the light of the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, ratified by the country in 2007. Co-rapporteurs on local democracy Ms Lucia Kroon (Netherlands, EPP-CCE) and Mr  Sören Schumacher (Germany, SOC), will focus on the developments in the field of local democracy occurred since the last Congress monitoring visit in June 2010.

High level meetings are scheduled, in particular with the State Secretary in charge of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Mr Željko OŽEGOVIĆ, as well as the State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, in charge of European Union affairs, Ms Jelena Stojovic.

The delegation will also meet representatives of local and regional authorities as well as representatives of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, notably Mr Nihat Bisevac, Mayor of Novi Pazar, M. Goran Cvetanovic, Mayor of Leskovac, M. Miloš Vučević, Mayor of Novi Sad, and Mr Milan Garašević, Mayor of Kovačica Municipality.

Finally, meetings are scheduled with representatives of the National Assembly, Mr Petar Petrović, President of the Committee on the Judiciary, Public Administration and Local Self-Government  and Dr Aleksandra Tomić, President of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending. The delegation will also meet the President of the State Audit Institution, M. Radoslav Sretenović, the President of the Constitutional Court Mrs Vesna Ilić-prelić and the President of the National Alliance for Local Economic Development managing board, M. Goran Kovacevic.

Serbia ratified the European Charter of Local Self Government in 2007. The countries which have ratified the Charter are bound by its provisions. The Charter requires compliance with a minimum number of rights, which form the European bedrock of local self-government. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities makes sure that these principles are observed.

Programme

Contact:
Secretariat of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
Stéphanie Poirel – [email protected]

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

Planning, Coordination and institutional Communication Unit

Tel: +33 (0)3 90 21 48 95

Fax:+33 (0)3 88 41 27 51

[email protected]

www.coe.int/congress

The Congress has two chambers, the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions. It brings together 324 full and 324 substitute members representing more than 200 000 European territorial communities.

President of the Congress: Gudrun Mosler-Törnström (Austria, SOC), President of the Chamber of Local Authorities: Anders Knape (Sweden, EPP/CCE), President of the Chamber of Regions: Gunn Marit Helgesen (Norway, EPP-CCE)

Political Groups: Socialist Group (SOC), Group of the European People’s Party (EPP/CCE), Independent and Liberal Democrat Group (ILDG), European Conservatives & Reformists Group  (ECR)