The State of European Cities in Transition

Expert Group Meeting – The State of European Cities in Transition took place on the 25-26 January in Krakow, Poland. The EGM was jointly organized and facilitated by the Warsaw Office of UN-Habitat and the Institute of Urban Development (Instytut Rozwoju Miast) Poland. The EGM was hosted by the Institute of Urban Development (IRM) Poland. The main objective of the meeting was to launch the preparatory process of the State of European Cities in Transition 2010 report and agree with selected interested institutions on the annotated outline of the report. The meeting was also intended to agree on the scope of the Report, the geographical coverage; identification of sub-regions; the time schedule for the drafting process, and some partnering modalities and networking mechanisms for the preparation of the Report. Over 20 experts from eight countries of the East and Central Europe Region, representing academic and research institutions, international organizations and associations of local authorities, including NALAS, participated in the EGM.

Citizen Participation in the Urban Planning Process

Proper planning asks for citizens’ participation. This process may be a round table or workshops or a large public debate with stakeholders direct or indirect affected or interested. The general objective of the document is to contribute in stimulating “demand” for public participation in the planning process, inviting the local major stakeholders to navigate through the a large array of techniques which in long run certainly help for a good governance in the municipalities.

Legislation and analysis of the implementation of spatial and urban planning

One of the most important and biggest competencies that have been transferred from the central to the local level is spatial and urban planning. Planning is a responsibility shared by central and local authorities. Spatial and urban planning is a continuous process that needs to be mutually coordinated in a complementary way. Likewise, it needs to be coordinated with the large number of priorities coming from different areas of competency, in particular economic and social development and environmental protection. This publication is an effort to analyse the legislation and implementation of the spatial and urban planning in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Republic of Srpska and Turkey.

Course in International Co-operation and Urban Development

MUNDUS URBANO is an interdisciplinary Erasmus Mundus Masters Course in International Cooperation and Urban Development. It is jointly offered by four leading European Universities and supported by the European Commission. Full scholarships (2 years) are offered to non-EU students, Western Balkan coutries and Turkey, to cover the tuition fee and all expenses of study (48 000€). However, the deadline is soon: By December 1st, 2009 for non-EU students (10 scholarship), Western Balkan countries and Turkey and by Januay 1st, 2010 for non-EU scholars. More information on the website below.

Task Force on Urban Planning meeting, Ljubljana, 15-16 October 2009

The fourth and the last for the year 2009 gathering of the NALAS Task Force on Urban Planning took place in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana on the 15-16th of October 2009. It gathered in total 18 participants, some of them new members of the Task Force – the representatives of the associations of Moldova, Montenegro and Croatia. This meeting was about exchanging opinions and looking at the urban planning processes in the NALAS member countries from different perspectives. Central point of the discussions was insufficient funds available to the local governments and frequent change in the national legislations connected with urban planning.

Urban Planning Task Force meeting in Tirana, 7 May 2009

The NALAS Task Force on Urban Planning met in Tirana on 7 May 2009. The meeting took place between two national workshops of the Urban Integration of Informal Settlements project - one in the Republic of Srpska on 27, 28 April and a second one in Albania on 8 May. During the meeting, experts delivered updates on the recent development in the urbanism sector in South East Europe, concluding that most of the counties are still facing serious challenges in this area. This is especially the case as the economy shrinks and municipalities are now even less able to build new social and physical infrastructure to serve their growing communities. Central governments are not helping either, as in some cases they are even disrupting municipal efforts, by using “legal shortcuts” to bypass regular municipal planning processes, or by not giving state land to the municipalities. The meeting resulted with new potential project ideas for activities of this task force in 2010.

Land ownership study in Prijedor

The Land ownership study in Prijedor is part of the activities of the NALAS project Urban Integration of Informal Settlements in the Republic of Srpska. This document aims to explain the relevant legislation and its change in the past 15 year, to present the ownership of the land as given by the cadastre and real estate books, to explain current state in current court proceeding for the land and to gather comments from the experts about this problem. The study is available in Englih and Serbian Language.
 Land ownership study in Prijedor in Serbian language
 Land ownership study in Prijedor in English language