At the sitting held on 23 November, the Local Self-Government Committee considered the Bill amending and modifying the 2010 Republic of Serbia Budget Law, with its accompanying proposals of decisions granting consent to the amendments and modifications to the financial plans for 2010 of:

1) the Republic Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance of Employees,

2) the National Employment Service, the part pertaining to the financing of local self-government units.

Elaborating the Bill amending and modifying the 2010 Republic of Serbia Budget Law, State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Vuk Djokovic said that the local self-government units would receive an additional billion RSD. One half of it is intended for all local self-government units, and the other half will be additionally allocated to local self-government units with low budgetary income which are the most endangered.

Djokovic said that, starting form next year, the Ministry of Finance will seek methods to gradually increase the transfers to the local self-government until the legal requirement of 1.7 gross domestic product is met.

Stating that the local self-government bore the brunt of the crisis, the Committee members requested that these funds be made available to the local self-government units as soon as possible after the budget rebalance. It was also said that the Government should urgently draft a document on the criteria and manner of allocation of these funds among the local self-governments. The discussion also touched on the question of when a law on public property would be drafted.

The sitting was chaired by Jovan Palalic, Committee Chairman.