Local governments’ participation in the EU integration process is of great importance, said Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia in Topola at the presentation of three EUprojects, financed with hundreds of thousands of euros, aimed to significantly improve living conditions of this municipality’s residents.
The EU has for years funded municipalities’ programmes in order to strengthen and encourage them to play a more active role, as well as to help them reach an optimal level of EU integrations, which is the level closest to citizens, Davenport said.
“We expect municipalities to implement reforms together with central authorities, in order to improve the quality of life of their citizens, create citizen-oriented local governments, and promote social protection, industrial relations and social dialogue systems,”, he said.
Davenport said that Topola was “a great example of a socially active municipality, and stands as an example for municipalities across Serbia”.
“The projects you have presented here today, which are funded from our EU EXCHANGE 4 and For a Better Life programmes aimed at providing help to refugees and internally displaced persons, are extremely relevant because they deal with topics of utmost importance for your social and economic development,” Ambassador Davenport said.
Topola provides help to most vulnerable refugee and internally displaced families to improve their housing conditions and to develop their own business through an EU grant worth EUR56,000. This project is a part of the comprehensive EU programme worth EUR14 million aimed at addressing the issues of refugees and internally displaced persons, and closing the remaining collective centres in Serbia.
Along with Aranđelovac and Smederevska Palanka, Topola municipality is also involved in the programme aimed at improving the delivery of social services to elderly people and their households. Project, to which the EU contributes with almost EUR123,000, should enable NGO sector to take an active part in service delivery, as well as to train and accredit gerontology nurses in accordance with current standards.
Within the project held by the City of Kragujevac, with the participation of municipalities of Knić, Batočina, Rekovac and Topola, the EU provided financial help of EUR162,000 to help them list and register the property and build property management capacities as essential resources for the development of local economy.
Two out of those three EU-funded projects are conducted within the Exchange 4 programme, which is implemented by the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, while the programme aimed at providing help to forced migrants is being carried out independently by Topola, but with the financial help of the EU.
“Our cooperation goes years back, and the EU has by now invested more than half a million of euros in cooperation with Topola, including the ongoing projects,” said Davenport and added that ”a decade ago, Topola received its first EU grant that assisted in employment of persons with disabilities.”
Davenport talked to students of Kralj Petar I secondary school about the benefits brought to young people by the EU integration process. Through the EU VET programme, this school received IT equipment – 18 workstations, 2 laptops, printers, and a projector – while its teachers were trained for implementation of modernised curricula.
