The Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe Mathieu Mori, as part of his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, met in Sarajevo with representatives of the Association of Municipalities and Cities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Association of Municipalities and Cities of the Republika Srpska.
On this occasion, Mori emphasized the readiness of the Congress of local and regional authorities to continue improving cooperation with the unions, and informed about the activities of the Congress in the last period.
He congratulated the associations on joint cooperation at the local level within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Representatives of the Association of Municipalities and Cities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, led by Suad Huskić, Chairman of the Assembly of the Association and Vesna Travljanin, Director of the Association, emphasized the importance and role of the local level of government as the most functional and closest to the citizens.
Suad Huskić, chairman of the Assembly of the Federation, thanked the Council of Europe for the support they provide to federations, local self-government units and citizens. He highlighted important topics such as digitization processes, energy transformation, the relationship with the environment, etc.
The director of the Association, Vesna Travljanin, emphasized that there is still a problem of transfer of obligations to local self-government units, which is not accompanied by the transfer of adequate sources of funding, which is in contradiction with the European Charter on Local Self-Government.
She also stated that there is a problem of non-compliance of certain legal regulations with the Law on the Principles of Local Self-Government in FBiH and with the European Charter on Local Self-Government, which creates problems in practice.
She also emphasized that the support of the Council of Europe is very important for the Alliance.
She believes that it is very important to achieve coordination within the Delegation of the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, where the Alliance also has its representatives, because there is a series of joint activities ahead both in the Council of Europe and in the European Commission, which require joint and to work actively, especially in the light of the upcoming processes of joining the European Union, BHRT writes.
