Reseau des Associations Nationales de Pouvoirs Locaux de l'Europe du Sud-Est

EU Legislative Interests

TED WG 2 - Political and Civic Participation 2025 Presentation of the Deliberative Democracy project to TED WG2 as follow up of WG2 webinar, “Strengthening Local Democratic Resilience: Entry Points for Supporting and Engaging with Local Communities and Actors in Fragile Contexts”. NALAS input was presented during Lab on Mainstreaming democratic values and Civic Space in fragile contexts. TED WG2 - In-person meeting with staff of TED Secretariat in Brussels to exchange on quality standards in Capacity Development, offer of NALAS eAcademy, and social inclusion of vulnerable groups a migration management.(19Feb2025) Key findings & recommendations of expert draft report on inclusive participation shared by NALAS during TED meeting dedicated to strategies and options to improve support to inclusive participation for vulnerable people and communities in partner countries.(Feb.2024) “Call for Evidence for an Initiative – “Defence of Democracy package” Ref. Ares(2023)1121991 - 16/02/2023 - NALAS provided opinion in frame of EU consultation on civic engagement. ENLARGEMENT COM(2024) 690 final, 30.10.2024 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – “2024 Communication on EU enlargement policy”. NALAS provided recommendations on: (i) Digital transition in WB6 (ii) role and function of Local Governments and their associations in Growth Plan WB6, and (iii) multi-level governance and dialogue national-local government level to CIVEX Commission in January 2025. DG ENEST: Positive feedback to NALAS/CEMR/Congress strategic concept titled “Establishing the Local Observatory on Reform Agendas Implementation (LORAI)”. (Mach-June 2025) DG NEAR: Joint strategic concept titled “The indispensable role of local and regional authorities in the EU accession process of the Western Balkans”, presented to DG NEAR D.5 by NALAS-CEMR-Congress of Local & Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, July 2024 COM(2023) 690 final - COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS. NALAS recommendations focused on: (i) Programming and monitoring the EU financial assistance to WB 6 (ii) Managing migration challenges (iii) Responding to key challenges of green and digital transition (iv) Western Balkans Growth Plan and Finance Facility. NALAS recommendations about the role of Local & Regional Associations in the enlargement process were included in point 96 of (CIVEX-VII/027) (17-18 April 2024). COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS “2022 Communication on EU Enlargement Policy” COM(2022) 528 final, 12 October 2022 and EP recommendations of 23 November 2022 to the Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy concerning the new EU strategy for enlargement - 2022/2064(INI) CIVEX-VII-012 and COM(2020) 644 final - 2021 Communication on EU Enlargement Policy. NALAS President and Vice-President met on 02 Apr.2022 CIVEX rapporteur Anna Magyar regarding the Committee of the Regions draft opinion on Enlargement Package 2021 – NALAS shared opinion on: (i) innovative ways in political and practical cooperation with the enlargement countries, (ii) Western Balkans Common Regional Market, and (iii) negative tendencies of demography in WB.

Communication Activities

PUBLICATIONS 2025 June 2025: NALAS released the 10th edition of its flagship publication, Fiscal Decentralization Indicators for South-East Europe, titled “Fiscal Decentralization in South-East Europe: A Decade of Reforms, Crises, and Multilevel Governance”. May 2025: Knowledge Management Brochure published on “Exchange of good practices on sociocultural participation of people on the move in host communities in the Western Balkans” May 2025: 4th Edition of the NALAS Statistical Brief: Local Finance Indicators in South-East Europe Feb. 2025: Regional Report on collaboration and communication in the provision of water and sanitation services (NALAS/GIZ/SDC) Feb. 2025: “Setting the standard" – Guidelines for the establishment and effective operation of LGA’s sectoral committees” 2024: ”Effective Application of DRR IT Tools for Hydrometeorological Hazards at a Local Level” – Participants’ Guide, Nov.2024 Ninth edition of NALAS Fiscal Decentralization Indicators for Edition South-East Europe, May 2024 POSITION PAPERS 2025 NALAS Position Paper to promote Social Inclusion and Migration at the Local Level. This document aims to articulate NALAS and its member associations' policy positions on mainstreaming social inclusion into local governance and to build just, smart, and resilient societies in South-East Europe. EVENTS 2025 July 2025: Dusan Raicevic, NALAS political spokesperson, addressed CEMR event on Impact Communities titled: “Local Governments Dialogue on the Road to EU Enlargement” 26 June 2025: 4th meeting of Community of Practice on Deliberative Democracy, bringing together representatives from 18 local governments and 7 local government associations across South-East Europe Transformative Training of Trainers (ToT) focused on the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) and Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agendas, organized by UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women, NALAS, and the UN System Staff College (22-27 June) Enlargement Days 2025: NALAS active involvement via: (i) NALAS President Dubravko Bilic (Mayor of Ludbreg, Croatia) speaking at the opening of the inaugural session for the JCC Albania on 27 May, and at the plenary session dedicated to “Energy Transition and Local Climate Action in the Context of EU Accession” the next day on 28 May. 2024 EWRC 2024: The hybrid “Unlocking Digital Frontiers & Maximizing Potential for the Western Balkans” was part of “EURegionsWeek close to you session” and took place in Sombor, Serbia, on 16 October. The session was organised in collaboration with KDZ, the Center for Public Administration Research in Vienna, Austria. Enlargement Days 2024: NALAS played a pivotal role: (i) actively participated in the Working Group for the Western Balkans (ii) Speaking at plenary panel session titled "Local and Regional Authorities in the Enlargement Process." (iii) Moderating the second plenary session, "Public Administration Reform and Fiscal Decentralisation” (iv) Presenting best practices in fiscal decentralisation in SEE. "Local and regional authorities in the enlargement process" and moderated the 2nd plenary session “Public administration reform and fiscal decentralisation". TED WG2 NALAS led breakout session of TED WG2 on political and civic participation meeting on “Strategies and options to improve support to inclusive participation for vulnerable people and communities in partner countries”, March 2024 DeLog and CIB/UCLG annual meetings, Barcelona (26-29 May) - Topics: Summit of the Future - Development & Finance Conference 2025 - Role of LGs in development.

Interests Represented

Promotes their own interests or the collective interests of their members

Member Of

Since 2022 NALAS is a member of the TEAM Europe Democracy TED WG 2 Political and Civic Participation NALAS is associate member of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions and vice-versa. https://www.ccre.org/en/article/introducing_cemr The European Foundation for Sustainable Development of the Regions is NALAS associate member. http://www.fedre.org NALAS is core member of PLATFORMA, the pan-Europen coalition of of towns and regions – and their national, EU and global associations – active in city-to-city and region-to-region development cooperation. https://platforma-dev.eu/ NALAS is a member of DeLoG (Decentralisation and Local Government) network comprising 38 members from European and non-European institutions/organisations: https://www.delog.org/about/members-and-partners NALAS is an institutional partner with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe: https://www.coe.int/en/web/congress/list-of-organisations-partners-to-the-congress NALAS is an active member of the UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) Committee of Local Economic & Social Development and CIB (Capacity & Institution Building) Working Group.

Organisation Members

All NALAS members (13 national local government associations from 12 South-East European countries, representing more than 5000 local governments) are members of CEMR - https://www.ccre.org/en/associations/index In addition, NALAS and CEMR have mutual cross-membership affiliation. The Union of Turkish World Municipalities is an associated NALAS member. ENERGY CITIES is an associated NALAS member. The Austrian Association of Cities and Towns is an associated NALAS member. All NALAS members are members of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe: https://www.coe.int/en/web/congress/search-members List of NALAS members: http://nalas.eu/Members