OSCE Mission to Skopje helps share municipal best practices with visiting Serbian delegation

SKOPJE, 6 October 2008 - A delegation of Serbia's municipal interethnic council arrived in Skopje today to learn about best practices on inter community relations within municipalities.

Based on recommendations from the Association of Municipalities (ZELS) and the OSCE, the Parliament in Skopje put into law in 2002 a requirement to establish a Committee for Inter Community Relations in municipalities, and they were first introduced in 2005.

"This visit is a good example of how OSCE missions in different countries can help local authorities share best practices, especially when it comes to ethnically sensitive issues. It is important to develop municipal bodies that will be pro-active in improving inter-community relations," said Ambassador Natalya Drozd, Acting Head of OSCE Mission to Skopje.

Ljupco Mickovski, Mayor of the ethnically mixed municipality of Sopiste, said that the committee in his municipality has initiated several projects for interethnic dialogue, such joint celebrations of Bajram (Eid) and Christmas, and football tournaments for ethnically mixed teams. These are some of the projects he would be happy to share with his counterparts from Serbia.

Dusanka Zeljkovic, adviser on local self-government and inter-municipal co-operation in Vojvodina, Serbia, said: "After several attempts to set up committees for interethnic relations in our municipalities, we almost stopped believing they could work, but after hearing about the enthusiasm and various activities organized by similar committees in your country, I believe they can function in Serbia as well."