Reforms of Public Services Experiences of Municipalities and Regions in South-East Europe 100 pages, pdf  Download Back

 Reforms of Public Services Experiences of Municipalities and Regions in South-East Europe

Publisher: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, BiH

Volume: 100 pages, pdf

Description:

The regional office of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), in Zagreb in cooperation with the Budapest office of FES, organized in Budapest in October 2003 a workshop on the issue of public services on the local and regional level. The results are presented in the publication Reforms of Public Services Experiences of Municipalities and Regions in South-East Europe. During the workshop experts of various countries from SouthEast Europe compared and discussed different approaches in the region for the provision of public services to citizens on the local level. In the process of reforming the societies, all of them are transforming their economies based on market mechanisms and decentralizing public functions. In the course of this process, the central governments shifted several responsibilities to local governments. The new responsibilities, now under the control of local authorities, include services like water, waste, heating, basic education, health, and social care. However, in many cases the central government did not provide the necessary funds to local authorities in order to enable them to cope with the new tasks. It seems that in this relationship a proper balance has yet to be found.