Fiscal Decentralization
The NALAS Task Force on Fiscal Decentralization consists of regional experts in local and intergovernmental finances representing member associations. The host association for this Task Force is the National Association of Local Governments of Bulgaria (NAMRB).
Latest Task Forces
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Energy Efficiency
The NALAS Task Force on Energy Efficiency addresses the increasing issues with energy in South East Europe. As energy efficiency is an interdisciplinary field, this task brings together energy experts, municipal energy managers, mayors and other professionals who contribute together in mitigating the energy problems by proposing changes in the legislation, collecting best practices, encouraging better use of the available energy and employing renewable sources of energy.
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Urban Planning
The NALAS Task Force on Urban Planning consists of regional urban planning experts representing member associations. It tackles urban planning issues common in the region, such us integration of informal settlements, inclusion of more stakeholders in the urban planning process and collection and analysis of the right parameters in what is known as "urban economics".
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Sustainable Tourism
The NALAS Task Force on Sustainable Tourism is an emerging task force aimed to encourage tourism development in South East Europe based on sustainability principles. The role of the Task Force is to promote tourism policy, governance and operations that respect and protect the environment and biodiversity and foster social inclusion, while creating employment and income earning opportunities and contributing to socio-economic growth. This Task Force is hosted by the Association of Municipalities and Cities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Fiscal Decentralization
The NALAS Task Force on Fiscal Decentralization consists of regional experts in local and intergovernmental finances representing member associations. The host association for this Task Force is the National Association of Local Governments of Bulgaria (NAMRB).
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Fiscal Decentralisation Task Force Meeting in Ljubljana, 11-12 July 2011 11.07.2011
Read moreNALAS Task Force on Fiscal Decentralisation met in Ljubljana 11-12 July to hold conceptual discussions on the role and interests of the TF in the next several years.
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Workshop on Modernizing Local Public Expenditure Management 11.05.2011
Read moreAs part of the cooperation with the World Bank-Austria Urban Partnership Program, NALAS and its Fiscal Decentralization Task Force took part in the workshop on Modernizing Local Public Expenditure Management, organized in Mavrovo, Macedonia, from 15-17 May 2012. The workshop focused on local expenditures and selected aspects of expenditures management, such as: Recurrent expenditures versus capital investment expenditures; Budget as a tool for expenditure monitoring and control; Making budgets real: planning methods, expenditure control techniques; Procuring, contracting, and regulating private providers; Price setting of local utility services; Promoting or reversing private provision of utility services, etc.
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Guidelines on Local Government Borrowing 21.12.2010
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This publication contains best experiences available in the region of South East Europe in debt financing and managing complex capital investment projects.
Improved information is intended also to lead to proposals for changes in laws and regulations that are restricting local borrowing in some countries. In this guide the project team analyzed recent trends (2010) in local government borrowing in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Republika Srpska – BiH, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.
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Fiscal Decentralization Task Force Meeting in Sofia, 14-15 December 2010 14.12.2010
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The main pillars of this meeting hosted by NAMRB were: a) exchange of updates between the members on the current issues in fiscal decentralization in their countries; b) update on the progress of the project on Municipal Borrowing and promotion of the capacity building component and c) further development of the project ideas selected and prioritized at the meeting in Skopje: Non-tax Revenues, Multiannual and Participatory Budgeting and Budget negotiations II.
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Disaster for the municipalities 01.12.2010
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Pforzheim is a town of nearly 119 000 inhabitants in the state of Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany. It is world-famous for its jewelry and watch-making industry. Because of that it gained the nickname "Goldstadt" or Golden City. It has an area of 98 km² and is situated between the cities of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. Unfortunately, lately the city is becoming famous for another thing. On 5 January 2010, "Die Welt" published a story of a long struggle of the town Mayoress and her city treasurer that may lead to a legendary loss of 77.5 million euro in the years 2014-2017. The translated version of the story is available at the link below.
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Fiscal Decentralization Task Force Meeting in Skopje, 28-29 June 2010 28.06.2010
Read moreThe NALAS Task Force on Fiscal Decentralization meeting took place in Skopje, Macedonia on 28-29 June. The main topic on the meeting’s agenda was the presentation and discussion of the NALAS Final Report on Developing a Municipal Finance Database in South Eastern Europe: the Preparatory Phase. During the meeting, the report was improved with the input of the participants and two ideas for follow-up phases were developed. Also, other three new projects ideas on different topics related with the most pressing issues in NALAS countries were selected from a bigger number of ideas to be further developed by the experts/associations that took commitment to write the first draft of the projects.
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Sofia Declaration on Enforcing the political neutrality and independence 01.02.2010
Read moreIn some countries in South East Europe the unity of national associations was challenged in the past few months: new associations were established, while the national associations, members of NALAS network, lost considerable part of their membership. Therefore, the Presidents at their meeting in Sofia expressed their concern about such tendencies of fragmentation of national associations in the region. A political declaration was adopted by the Presidents who agreed that the message coming from NALAS should be widely disseminated in all SEE countries.
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Fiscal Decentralization, Options for Donor Harmonisation 11.01.2010
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Since the beginning of the 1990s, most developing countries have embarked in a process of subsequent decentralization, combining political, administrative and fiscal aspects. In this context, the Secretariat of the Development Partners Working Group on Local Governance and Decentralization (DPWG-LGD) has commissioned a desk study in the area of Fiscal Decentralization with a focus on local taxation, in order to produce recommendations on two levels: (i) Simplification and optimization of fiscal systems and (ii) harmonization of development partners’ interventions. The desk study has been conducted by an individual consultant from Germany and used sources of information provided by the working group members as well as other sources from her professional experience.
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Resolution of the Presidium of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities of 1 December 2009 01.12.2009
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The impacts of the financial and economic crisis are increasingly being felt in the cities and towns. Tax revenues heavily drop, while social expenditure is exploding. Municipalities are to look after children and ensure security, rehabilitate schools and eliminate waste water, pay social welfare benefit and strengthen local crafts - in short, provide an attractive environment. The gap between the collapsing revenues and skyrocketing costs of the municipalities will become wider in the next few years. The financial crisis is already determined policy decisions. Given this precarious situation, the German cities and municipalities are calling for a recue system and sustainable municipal consolidation package. Click below to read the whole document.
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Cost Estimation of Municipal Services of South East Europe 04.08.2008
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As a result of the awareness of the new needs for local authorities in South East Europe, the NALAS Task Force on Fiscal Decentralization gathered experts and resources to develop cost estimation model of mainstream municipal services. This publication offers methods of cost estimation of municipal services that include operational (investment) costs,are simple and relatively easy to apply and still allow country-specific adjustments.

