The Public Administration and Local Government (PALGO) Centre today presented the Draft Act on the Property of Local Self-Government Bodies to deputies at the National Assembly.

Officials of the PALGO Centre and the Standing Conference of Cities and Municipalities involved in drafting the Act, as well as deputies present, were greeted by the Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Predrag Markovic. Mr Markovic said that it was the desire of everybody to see the issue of restoring property regulated in the new Constitution. He also stressed that the Constitution would define two types of state property – one managed by the Republic of Serbia, and one administered by local authorities.

The Director of the PALGO Centre, Mijat Damjanovic, said that no serious economic recovery was possible without the adoption of a law on the property of local self-government bodies, adding that it was important not only for local communities, but also for the central government, and that it represented an important precondition for decentralisation of power.

The Secretary General of the Standing Conference of Cities and Municipalities, Djordje Stanicic, said that solutions contained in the draft Act were flexible and provided for enough elements of oversight, as well as that all proposals for the new Constitution contained provisions calling for establishment of property of local self-government bodies.

Zlatko Stefanovic, of the PALGO Centre, underlined that the draft Act provided for the manner of solving the restoration of property to local self-government bodies and defined bodies in charge of the restoration procedure, as well as issues of powers of local self-government bodies.

It was stressed that Serbia was the only country in Europe in which local self-government bodies did not own property, but used property of other persons in performing its functions. A law such as this would aim at establishing independence of local self-government bodies regarding the exercise of their property rights.