EU support to sustainable territorial development

"All the local self-governments of these two districts face common problems, but at the same time they have a lot of opportunities for further development. The European Union provides support to Serbia precisely in achieving balanced development, because this is the basis of the EU's cohesion policy, on which a third of the budget is spent. It is extremely important that the regions develop evenly and that the less developed local self-governments close the gap to both the national and the European development average", said the Head of Cooperation of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Serbia, Nicola Bertolini.

He added that local self-governments should have joint projects in the field of environmental protection, social inclusion, tourism and local economy. These projects should contribute to the solution of the largest common problem, which is migration of the local young people.

"Three things are key in overcoming the challenges, namely strengthening the capacity of decision-makers at the local level with involving young people in those processes, the second is strategic thinking that does not focus only on individual municipalities, but unifies solutions for the entire region, and third, the involvement of the local population in making decision", said Bertolini.

"We discussed various forms of intersectoral cooperation of our municipalities in many areas, such as environmental protection and other branches of the economy. Although we already have ideas, now it is up to us to, through communication with the Delegation of the European Union, be prepared for new EU support for territorial development in near future", said the mayor of Požarevac, Saša Pavlović.

As Pavlović pointed out, "the key task before us is the preparation of quality planning and project documentation, because they are the basis for all future projects and development initiatives."

The meeting was attended by representatives of the City of Smederevo and the municipalities of Veliko Gradište, Golubac, Žabari, Žagubica, Kučevo, Malo Crniće, Petrovac na Mlavi and the Regional Development Agency Braničevo-Podunavlje.