First working meeting under the umbrella of “Participatory budgeting†project
24 August 2012, KraljevoA working meeting was held in Kraljevo for the representatives of budget departments in 11 local self governments included in this phase of the project, under the umbrella of “Participatory budgeting” project ran in 25 municipalities and cities in the South and South West Serbia by EU PROGRES and BIRN Serbia, with the financial support of European Union and Government of Switzerland.
The practice of participatory budgeting is related to direct and democratic approach to budgeting process, with the use of mechanisms enabling citizens to take part in decision making process about the priorities in public spending procedure.
The main topic of the meeting was the enhancement of budgetary planning process and the intensified inclusion of the public in that process, focusing on the expert analysis of the local self governments’ budgetary practices in this region of Serbia. This was done within the project’s framework, with the expert recommendations for budgetary planning in 2013. Among other things, the analysis served as a basis for budgetary provisions that could become a topic of public discussion, aiming at more transparent and better inclusion of citizens in their municipalities’ budgetary processes.
During this three day meeting, the participants were specifically informed about the concept and the objectives of participatory budgeting, as well as about the role of local self government and other participants in this process, time frame, mechanisms and tools for the inclusion of the public in the process of budgetary consultations, preconditions for the implementation of this practice and necessary resources. The recent experiences in the planning process of budget spending and citizens’ role in this process were also discussed. These discussions were based on a document about the existing practices of spending planning and the adoption of the budget in the South and South West Serbia, drafted during July and August 2012, on the basis of information gathered from local self governments.
This meeting is the first in the line of field activities within the “Participatory budgeting” project tuned to the budgetary calendar and planned to last until February 2013. In the coming period the individual visits to municipalities are planned, as well as discussions with mayors, representatives of relevant civil society organizations and other interest groups, in order to establish the best possible conditions for the introduction of participatory budgeting practice in the municipalities of South and South West Serbia in the second half of 2012.