Explore Campus 360°
The conference was opened by SEEU’s Pro-Rector for Research, Prof. Dr. Blerim Reka, who said that this conference has a very important topic and it is held at a very important time as well.
“Macedonia is a well chosen laboratory to study these issues. Decentralization became the first step towards providing more rights to the municipalities,” said the Pro-Rector Reka.
Demush Bajrami,the Rector’s Adviser for PR & Communication, said that decentralization means that decisions that belong to that level of government are implemented also in that level. Macedonia after the Ohrid Agreement could mark a new era in political life, including the transfer of jurisdiction of decision-making from the central government to local government, but it was often accompanied by troubles and without proper transparency.
The conference was attended by the Minister of Local Government of Macedonia, Mr. Nevzat Bejta, who illustrated his experience as mayor, MP and Minister in the implementation of this process in Macedonia.
“Decentralization of local government in Macedonia began with the signing of the Framework Agreement. Until then, people did not know the role and importance of municipalities. There are about 40 laws passed in Parliament dealing with the decentralization process, but the most important are the Law on Financing of Municipalities and the Law on Territorial Organization. Municipalities must do more to implement these laws, especially the Law on Territorial Organization, which provides funding in the amount of 1% of GDP. More powerful local authorities creates a more developed country. We have achieved in collaboration with the Association of Local Self-Government units to raise funds allocated to municipalities from VAT form 3% to 4,5%, and the intention is that this percentage to move to 6%," said in his speech Minister Nevzat Bejta.
The Director of the Institute for Political and International StudiesProf. Dr. Ylber Sela, greeted the participants and thanked them for participating in the conference. He said that the goal of the conference is to assess the process of decentralization, what has been done so far, the problems encountered during this process and what are the future trends.
The Republic of Macedonia is divided into 84 municipalities and the City of Skopje, and the process of decentralization began in 2004. In the conference participated researchers from Poland, Albania, Romania, Kosovo, Macedonia and other countries of Europe.