A presentation of the available EU programmes for local self-government, entitled "European Union Programmes in the Service of Local Community Development", was held yesterday in the Club of Deputies in Belgrade, and was attended by around 60 participants from over 30 municipalities and cities from all over Serbia.
The presentation was organized by the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society, as a national contact point for the EU program "Europe for Citizens", and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, within its programme “Support to local self-governments in Serbia on the way towards the EU – second phase” which is supported by the Kingdom of Sweden.
In addition to funds from the EU pre-accession funds, local self-governments in Serbia also can apply for funds from certain EU programmes in which our country has the right to participate. Their purpose is to support Member States, as well as candidate countries for EU membership, in implementing EU internal policies in various fields (such as education, culture, consumer protection, competition, environment, research and development).
The meeting was opened by Ms Jadranka Joksimovic, Minister for European Integration, Zarko Stepanovic, Acting Director of the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society and Djordje Stanicic, Secretary General of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities.
In her address, Minister for European Integration emphasized that the European integration process does not always refer to high-political issues, but also to development issues. In this regard, she emphasized the importance of participation in EU programmes, through which a large number of excellent projects from Serbia have already been supported. Minister stated that the Republic of Serbia is currently entitled to participate in the following EU programs: Horizon 2020, COSME, EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI), Erasmus +, Europe for Citizens, Creative Europe, Fiscalis 2020, European Health Program, Customs 2020, Civil Protection Mechanism.
Minister Joksimovic also emphasized the important role of local self-government units, as well as civil society organizations and other relevant actors at the local level, in the pre-accession period, as well as in the process of negotiations on Serbia's accession to the European Union. She also referred to the available IPA funds and provided information that the Republic of Serbia could expect another billion euros of non-repayable assistance from the European Union by 2020. She also said that the annual amount of pre-accession funds is around 200 million euros.
Acting Director of the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society, Zarko Stepanovic, stressed the importance of the EU programme "Europe for Citizens" for which the Office is a national contact point since 2012, which allows local self-governments and civil society organizations to cooperate and network with partner institutions from the EU. "We thus strengthen the capacities for the preparation and use of funds that are available to the Member States," Stepanovic said. According to him, 29 projects from Serbia have been approved so far within the "Europe for Citizens" programme, with total value of 1.7 million euros.
Secretary General of the SCTM, Djordje Stanicic, said that the goal was to raise the level of interest of local self-governments for applying for the available EU funds. "Our role in this process depends, above all, on our own," Stanicic emphasized.
Representatives of contact points for EU programs (Office for Cooperation with Civil Society, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy, and Tempus Foundation) presented four EU programmes within which local self-government units can submit project proposals - Europe for Citizens, Creative Europe, Erasmus + and EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI), ers. Also, for each program, relevant projects were presented as examples of good practice. Additionally, successful projects were presented by the Municipality of Ruma, the Center for Urban Development, the FORCA Association of Citizens and the Association of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia.
