Montenegrin municipalities have so far withdrawn 124 million euros from European funds through the implementation of 167 projects, of which the largest number of projects was through regional cooperation with our neighbors, said the general secretary of the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro, Mišela Manojlović, at the conference "Berlin Process and Regional Cooperation: challenges, opportunities and recommendations for Montenegro" in Podgorica, organized by the Pan-European Union of Montenegro.
"The community of municipalities tried through various initiatives to increase the absorption capacity of our municipalities, while providing direct support to municipalities in the preparation of projects, which resulted in the joint preparation of 26 projects, mainly infrastructural, and the withdrawal of funds in the amount of nearly 12 million euros. Through our initiative, we managed to create a legal solution that provides municipalities with funds for the pre-financing of donor projects from the budget of Montenegro, the so-called revolving fund, which removed a serious obstacle to the withdrawal of available EU funds returned funds in the amount of around two million euros," said Manojlović, as announced by the Union of Municipalities.
As they state, the community is currently engaged in the realization of the idea of forming a fund for the preparation of technical documentation, given that, they add in the announcement, "both at the state level and at the level of local self-governments, we have a lack of mature infrastructure projects, which for the consequence may be a smaller withdrawal of EU funds in the new financial perspective".
"And here we made a direct contribution to this initiative in the way that last year we allocated almost 500.000 euros, which were allocated through two public calls for the preparation of technical documentation in 21 municipalities," stated Manojlović.
She introduced the conference participants to the activities that the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro "has been undertaking for years in order to promote European standards and values at the local level", as well as the promotion of regional cooperation between local authorities, "building and establishing mechanisms that aim not only to exchange information , but also raising the capacity of local self-governments through projects, trainings and exchange of experiences".
According to her, the community of municipalities has become recognized as "a resource center of sorts, which greatly facilitates communication" not only among local self-governments, but also with other actors - institutions at the national level, European and international institutions, with which representatives of our local self-government.
"The community of municipalities of Montenegro actively participates in strengthening regional cooperation through various initiatives and regional projects, such as the Regional Network for Strengthening Capacity in the Water Sector, EU Energy Transition: Agreement of Mayors in the Western Balkans and Turkey, Network of Cities of Southeast Europe for Strengthening Capacity for attracting EU funds and the like. We also organize regional forums and conferences that bring together representatives of local authorities in order to exchange ideas and work together to solve challenges," said the general secretary of the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro.
At the conference "Berlin Process and Regional Cooperation: Challenges, Opportunities and Recommendations for Montenegro", the following spoke: Minister of Foreign Affairs Filip Ivanović, President of the Montenegrin Pan-European Union Gordana Đurović, Ambassador of Germany to Montenegro Peter Felten, Ambassador of Norway to Montenegro on a non-resident basis Kristin Melsom and others.
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