Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Sixteenth Sitting of the Local Self-Government Committee

At the sixteenth sitting, the Local Self-Government Committee considered, in principle, the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Financing of Local Self-Government, submitted by a group of 24 deputies of the United Regions of Serbia Parliamentary Group.


Mladjan Dinkic, head of the URS Parliamentary Group and representative of the submitters, pointed out that decentralisation demands that local self-governments depend less on state budget transfers, that they have strong local finances, which is achieved by the proposed amendments and modifications to the Law. It also envisages that the bulk of the income of municipalities and towns, 80%, be garnered from the citizens’ income tax.

The decreased transfer from the state budget also means that the city of Belgrade, as the wealthiest, completely suspend the transfer of funds from the state budget, that the more developed towns receive half the current transfers, and that the poorest, third and fourth category municipalities receive the same amount of transfer, as well as the newly-established solidarity transfer (budget savings achieved from the decreased financing of the wealthier local self-government units).

The address of the representative of the submitters Mladjan Dinkic was followed by a debate of the Committee members on the issue of local self-governments’ capacity to successfully discharge their duties and the issue of achieving the planned effect of the fund transfers envisaged by the Bill. The representative of the submitters and the Committee members agreed that decentralisation is an important state issue which should not be politicized, but rather the best solution should be sought.

Following the debate, the Committee members accepted the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Financing of Local Self-Government, in principle, and appointed Committee Deputy Chairman Mihailo Puric the Committee’s rapporteur to the National Assembly session.

In the continuation, President of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities Sasa Paunovic stated that the Bill allows the local self-government more funds and more freedom to spend them, but that the proposed manner of transfer from the citizens’ income tax is questionable as it is a less secure source than transfer from the republic budget.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Jovan Palalic.

Committees related to this activity


Previous month Next month
M T W T F S S
27 28 29 30 31 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
tuesday, 4 november
  • 9.00 - sitting of the Committee on Spatial Planning, Transport, Infrastructure and Telecommunications (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, hall 3)

  • 9.20 - press conference of the NEW DSS – POKS (NADA) Parliamentary Group (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Central Hall)

  • 9.30 - sitting of the European Integration Committee (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, hall 4)

  • 9.30 - sitting of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, hall 2)

  • 10.00 - press conference of the Ecological Uprising Parliamentary Group (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Central Hall)

  • 10.00 - Second Sitting of the Second Regular Session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in 2025 (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square)

  • 10.30 - sitting of the Foreign Affairs Committee (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, hall 4)

  • 12.00 - public hearing of the Culture and Information Committee on the topic: Public interview with the proposed candidates for Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media Council members (National Assembly Building, 14 Kralja Milana Street, Small Hall)

  • 15.00 - sitting of the Culture and Information Committee (National Assembly Building, 14 Kralja Milana Street, Small Hall)

  • 15.30 - the PFG with Italy, the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta meets with the Italian delegation to the Central European Initiative Parliamentary Dimension (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, hall 3)

  • 16.00 - the National Assembly Speaker meets with the Head of the EU Delegation to receive the EC Report on Serbia’s Progress in 2025 (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, hall 1)

  • 16.20 - press statements on the delivered EC Report on Serbia’s Progress in 2025 (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Central Hall)

  • 17.00 - press conference of the Green-Left Front – Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own and Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) – Party of Democratic Action of Sandzak (SDA Sandzak) – Party for Democratic Action (PDD) parliamentary groups (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Central Hall)

Full event calendar