National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia / Activities / Activity details
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Fifteenth Sitting of the Local Self-Government Committee
At the fifteenth sitting, the Local Self-Government Committee considered the Information on the Activities of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Local Self-Government Sector, in the period January-May 2011.
The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Jovan Palalic.
Informing the Committee members on the Ministry’s work in the period January-May 2011, Minister of Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self-Government Milan Markovic said that the Ministry experienced no difficulties in its operation while performing its regular duties – providing expert interpretations and opinions to local self-government units, establishing communal police forces in local self-governments, preparing responses to the questions contained in the European Union questionnaire, and it is still working on establishing central voter registers. The Minister stated that the planned legal changes regarding the electoral system and amendments to the Law on Local Elections did not take place.
A debate followed in which position and status of local community offices within local self-governments and the amendments to the Law on Local Elections proved to be the most important topics. The Minister and Committee members agreed that it was not easy to come up with a single solution to the status of local community offices as they are very important in rural areas, while in town municipalities they remain invisible and are not recognised as important. They agreed that it would be useful to consider the issue of the position of local community offices at a special sitting, and even hold said sitting outside of the headquarters in one of the local community offices. Regarding the amendments to the Law on Local Elections the Minister opined that the current electoral system is depersonalised and that the best system for the election of councilmen would be a personalised proportional system so that the citizens could choose their representatives in the local assemblies directly.
Informing the Committee members on the Ministry’s work in the period January-May 2011, Minister of Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self-Government Milan Markovic said that the Ministry experienced no difficulties in its operation while performing its regular duties – providing expert interpretations and opinions to local self-government units, establishing communal police forces in local self-governments, preparing responses to the questions contained in the European Union questionnaire, and it is still working on establishing central voter registers. The Minister stated that the planned legal changes regarding the electoral system and amendments to the Law on Local Elections did not take place.
A debate followed in which position and status of local community offices within local self-governments and the amendments to the Law on Local Elections proved to be the most important topics. The Minister and Committee members agreed that it was not easy to come up with a single solution to the status of local community offices as they are very important in rural areas, while in town municipalities they remain invisible and are not recognised as important. They agreed that it would be useful to consider the issue of the position of local community offices at a special sitting, and even hold said sitting outside of the headquarters in one of the local community offices. Regarding the amendments to the Law on Local Elections the Minister opined that the current electoral system is depersonalised and that the best system for the election of councilmen would be a personalised proportional system so that the citizens could choose their representatives in the local assemblies directly.