EU PROGRES

As of today, Prokuplje's residents can avail themselves of the services of the Citizens Advisory Service established with the financial support of the European Union and the Swiss Government with the aim of providing an effective, efficient and sustainable system of free legal aid, particularly to the most vulnerable residents. The project is implemented by the Roma Association of Prokuplje in cooperation with the municipality.

“The primary goal of the Citizens Advisory Service is to provide support to the most vulnerable groups. There is a large number of people who want to realise their rights but had so far been unable to adequately accomplish that. Thanks to this Advisory Service, they will now have at their disposal high-quality aid provided by legal experts free of charge. The Service reflects the efforts to help the persons belonging to marginalised groups feel that they are equal citizens of this country, because they truly are equal,“ Adviser to the Minister of Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self-Government Aleksandar Radosavljević said at the launch.

“Roma, persons with disabilities, people living in rural communities, the illiterate… all of them encounter problems when they try to realise their rights. This project provides all of them with free practical aid in obtaining documents or exercising these rights. It also provides all residents of Prokuplje, particularly the marginalised ones, with greater access to the services within the remits of the local self-government unit, the employment, social and health care institutions, the judiciary and the police,” Chairman of the Prokuplje Roma Association Dejan Živković said.

A total of 3.4 million RSD have been earmarked for this project, which will be implemented in the next 15 months. 

“This is the second Citizens Advisory Service that opened within the activities of the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme - EU PROGRES. The Citizens Advisory Service launched in Novi Pazar last summer has to date registered a large number of beneficiaries and successfully rendered services, over 900 of them. The Žitorađa Citizens Advisory Service is scheduled to open in February. This Service is an example of good governance in practice. The municipalities are tasked with providing their populations with specific services but they do not always have the capacities to do so. In such cases, they join forces with the non-government sector, which results in projects like this one: on the one hand, the citizens, successfully exercise their rights while, on the other, the municipalities are a true service of their residents,” EU PROGRES Programme Manager Graeme Tyndall said.

Another project contributing to good governance and implemented within EU PROGRES was promoted in Prokuplje today. This project, entitled, “Together towards Interculturalism” was designed in partnership between three National Minority Councils (NMCs): the Albanian, Bulgarian and Roma NMCs. The project aims at supporting intercultural dialogue between persons belonging to minorities in South Serbia and strengthening trust and cooperation among young people from different ethnic, religious, social and cultural backgrounds.

“We want to help the integration of minority groups in the local communities and we will achieve this by helping them to get to know each other. Young Albanians, Bulgarians, Roma and Serbs rarely have the opportunity to work together on projects and we want to help them sensitise the local communities and authorities so that they can achieve a genuine improvement in the way they live”, said Vitomir Mihajlović, the Chairman of the National Council of the Roma National Minority, which is leading on this project.

A round table focusing on the topic “Interculturalism in Serbia – Challenges and Perspectives” and attended by the representatives of the NMCs, local self-governments, the NGO sector and media, was held after the presentation of the project.