“Expansion Day” held in Brussels

A meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee of the Republic of Serbia and the Committee of the Regions of the European Union (CoR) was held in Brussels under the name “Enlargement Day”. The topics of the sessions were: EU enlargement and improvement of skills in the field of public-private partnership at the local level.

At the invitation of the co-chairman of the Committee, prof. Ph.D. Franz Schausberger, director of PPP Investment Jelena Tadić, spoke on the panel entitled “Improving skills in the field of public-private partnership at the local level”. She pointed out that the problems for local governments are limited budgets, communal and infrastructural challenges, and that the PPP model in Serbia has proven to be one of the most adequate frameworks for quality and efficient solutions.

“We have excellent examples in the implementation of PPP projects in the field of public lighting, urban and suburban passenger transport and road maintenance, because these are projects that quickly improve the quality of life of citizens, equally in both rural and urban areas of local self-government, providing access to basic communal services and other population that did not have them until then. By combining the public sector with the private sector in an optimal way, through the PPP model, a “win-win” situation is obtained, in terms of reducing public expenditures, achieving transparent profit for the private partner, increasing the quality of public service, environmental protection and increasing the comfort of end users. Tadić pointed out.

This year’s Joint Consultative Committee was co-chaired by the representative of the EU Committee of Regions, Prof. Dr. Franz Schausberger and the mayor of Niš Dragana Sotirovski.

The participants of this panel were Kathi Vidal (US Government), Juliana Rotich (Safaricom PLC), Walter Kreisel (neeom), Laura Fariello (Wien Energie), Alex Brix (Canva), Matthias Fiegl (Smart Digital). This year’s conference was graced by the Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, and Amel Clooney, a lawyer specializing in international law and human rights.

The European Committee of the Regions, as the EU’s expert body on multi-level governance and subsidiarity, helps countries prepare for accession to the European Union.