Last week in Brussels, NALAS President, Mayor Dubravko Bilic and NALAS team contributed to the Enlargement Days 2025, hosted at the European Committee of the Regions, focused on decentralisation and local climate action as pillars of the EU enlargement process.

During the first session, we emphasised that institutional and fiscal decentralisation is essential for functional democracy and successful EU integration. Excellent inputs were provided by Mr. Gledjan Llatja, Mayor of Elbasan, and Co-Chair of the CoR Joint Consultative Committee with Albania.

The second session, moderated by NALAS Program Director Jelena Janevska addressed energy transition and local climate action. In his address, NALAS President Bilic said:

“Local authorities have a key role in mitigating climate change. Not only that they contribute to the greenhouse emissions, or that they are ideally positioned to understand citizens’ concerns, they can also address the challenges in a comprehensive way, facilitating the conciliation between the public and private interest and the integration of sustainable energy into overall local development goals, be it development of alternative energy, more efficient energy use or changes in behaviour.

Having all this in mind, NALAS endorsed the establishment of the Covenant of Mayors Office for South East Europe, during our 2024 General Assembly. The vision of the Office is that with the support of NALAS and its member Local Government Associations, local governments become leading actors for implementing sustainable energy and climate policies, and contributors to the Green Agenda”.

NALAS Executive Director Kelmend Zajazi addressed at the constitutive session of the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) for Albania, emphasising the important role local governments have in the EU accession process and calling for their seat at the table when planning the national EU accession strategy, as well as continuous strengthening of their capacities to be able to meaningfully contribute to the EU aquis.

During 2025 Enlargement Days, the Final Conference of the EU4 Energy Transition: Covenant of Mayors in the Western Balkans and Türkiye was held. Over the past four years, the project, co-funded by the Europian Commission and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by GIZ in cooperation with NALAS, empowered more than 60 municipalities across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Türkiye to take the lead on the energy transition.

Both in the final conference and in the official session of the Enlargement Days Marion Fleuth-Leferink from BMZ highlighted the broader Regional Climate Partnership between Germany and the Western Balkans, reinforcing the EU’s and Germany’s long-term commitment to climate action and local empowerment in the region.

These have been inspiring two days of collaboration between local and regional leaders from EU candidates and EU Member States, sharing peer-to-peer experiences and concrete examples of how local governments contribute to Europe’s shared future.

We are proud of our cooperation with the Committee of the Regions on enlargement and the dialogue with local authorities within the JCC, as well as the strategic partnership with GIZ.