Representatives of RDA Srem were participants of the workshop within the project „Capacity Development of Accredited Regional Development Agencies for Strengthening Contributions in the Process of Implementation of the Action Plan for Negotiating Chapter 22 – Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments“. The workshop was organized for the representatives of RDA Subotica, Novi Sad, Ruma and Zrenjanin and it was held in Zrenjanin on 25th and 26th June 2017. The project is funded by the German organization for technical cooperation – GIZ, and the organizer and host was the Regional Center for Socio Economic Development – Banat.
All participants were greeted by the RCR Banat representative, Branislav Milosav. He noted that the role of the RDA has been recognized in the process of establishing of the institutional system and within the Chapter 22. It was confirmed by Mr Knezevic, the lecturer at the Office for European Integration (OEI), on the first day of the workshop with his lecture on the topic of EU Cohesion Policy, principles, objectives and instruments for its implementation.
Defining the legal, institutional and administrative framework is certainly the most important step with coordination as a key element. According to his words, „the European Commission draws a lot of attention to personnel issues because the absorption is dependent on the capacity, i.e. the transition from the IPA system to the creation and management of EU investment and structural funds. That is why the appointment of institutions and the establishment of an administration for the management of ESI funds should be done as soon as possible“.
The next day, the lecturers OEI, Branko Budimir, Natasa Marceta, Valentina Vidović and Dejan Gojković presented the participants in detail with the current situation in relation to Serbia – EU, reviewing the legislation for Chapter 22 regarding planning and programming of European structural and investment funds, the current state of the first framework for management and control system for the planning and implementation of IPA II in the Republic of Serbia, as well as recommendations from bilateral screening.
The conclusion is that there is no uniform solution for forming of an institutional framework, but one must be selected that will best fit into the system of government and be efficient and simple, especially due to the subsequent application of adopted procedures. In this respect, it is very important to establish a system for monitoring, reporting and evaluation of European Structural and Investment (ESI) funds.
In order to achieve all of this, the next steps to be taken relate to the definition of a human resource management policy that will be in line with the administrative reform process. Special emphasis will be placed on regional agencies as a link between the national and local levels of government with the aim of more efficient use of the forms for the preparation and implementation of projects, according to the EU methodology.