Serbia "can be proud of results achieved in 2014"

Serbia "can be proud of results achieved in 2014"

BELGRADE -- Serbia can be proud of the results it has achieved in 2014, the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Michael Davenport, said on Wednesday.

He added that " intensive preparations are under way" to open the first EU membership negotiation chapters "in the coming months."

"We have worked hard on the screening process and we are making intensive preparations for the opening of the first negotiation chapters in the coming months," Davenport said, addressing the participants of the 42nd Assembly of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities on local self-government, environment and rural development on the way towards European standards.

Seventy percent of the EU regulations that Serbia must implement pertain to the local level, Davenport told the mayors and municipal presidents attending.

It is time that municipalities leave party policies aside and focus on the residents' needs, the EU ambassador said, adding that, since 2000, Brussels has donated more than EUR 330 million for improvement of local and regional development in Serbia.

The focus in 2015 will be on reforming the state administration, as it is the third pillar of the European Commission reform strategy for countries of the region, said Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Kori Udovicki, who is also Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government.

"It is clear to us that we must simplify regulations and boost administrative capacities at local level in order to be able to use EU funds," she said, adding that the government is resolved to carry out a reform of the state administration "that is essentially aimed at creating a prosperous state."

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