The key role of every municipality is to take care about interests and needs of its citizens. Although recently municipalities in the South and South West Serbia have become more ordered places, with more reliable supplies of electricity, water and heating, and citizens are able to receive more efficient services (for example in the Citizens Assistance Centres), there is certainly a need for further improvements and modernisation.
One of the pending tasks the municipalities must complete is the creation or update of spatial plans which are, according to the Law on Planning and Construction, a precondition for any kind of building and investment. Furthermore, planning documents— spatial plans, urban plans and detailed regulatory plans are a precondition for issuing building permits without which legal infrastructure development in municipalities is not possible. Finally, the municipalities need to revise their sustainable development strategies making sure there is money for projects in their annual budgets.
For all these reasons, EU PROGRES will assist municipalities on several levels. Emphasis will be put on funding of planning documents from sustainable development strategies and spatial plans to detailed plans. In addition, EU PROGRES will support the modernization of Citizens Assistance Centres, Local Economic Development Offices, Business Incubator Centres, Business units, Tax Departments and introduction of programme based budgeting.
Altogether, EU PROGRES activities within this component will ensure improvements in the services delivery to citizens and businesses thus improving quality of life and contributing to creation of business friendly environment.
