NALAS, LGAs and local governments are part of the new initiative of the German government - "Municipal Partnerships for Sustainability".

This publication presents the result of a survey of NALAS member LGAs on the practice of property taxation in SEE and its connection to land use planning.

Some fifteen urban planners and urban development experts from SEE gathered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 10-11 March 2016 to discuss contemporary urban development challenges in SEE and explore citizens' participation in the urban planning process.

A quite exciting workshop, held on 5 and 6 October 2015, in Belgrade, Serbia, brought together experts from two important NALAS Task Forces: the Urban Planning Task Force and the Fiscal Decentralization Task Force.

This publication summarises the results of the Assessing territorial attractiveness in South-East Europe-Attract SEE project.

The five NALAS Task Forces in: Urban Planning, Energy Efficiency, Fiscal Decentralization, Water and Solid Waste and Sustainable Tourism are at the heart of NALAS, bringing together the best experts from the region, competent associations' staff and professionals employed in the local government administration, who are directly facing the consequences and challenges coming from policies and laws which define the system of local government. NALAS Task Forces have a key role in knowledge production and dissemination. Through an interview with Ms. Claudia Pamfil, we present to you NALAS Task Force on Urban Planning, a very active and productive group, that works to boost urban development of SEE.

From 25-26 November 2013, NALAS Task Force on Urban Planning met in Skopje, Macedonia to discuss the current urban planning challenges in South-East Europe. Task Force members informed each other about the recent developments in their countries in regards with urban planning, ongoing national and municipal projects most relevant to urban planning, as well as the role their Local Government Associations have in these processes.

Want to know what is new in South East Europe (SEE) in the area of urban planning? Share with fellow experts, colleagues, peers? Learn from others and exchange experiences? All of this and much more is offered by the online Forum on Urban Planning in South East Europe, available at: http://www.seecities.eu/seecities.eu/forum/yaf_topics6_Urban-planning.aspx. Log in and become a member of the Forum, to start the exchange!

As part of the cooperation with the World Bank-Austria Urban Partnership Program, NALAS and its Urban Planning Task Force took part in the workshop on Urban Planning and Land Management: Modernizing Legal and Regulatory Framework in SEE, organized in Tirana, Albania, from 19-20 June 2012. The workshop focused on the Regulatory and Institutional Frameworks for Urban Planning in SEE and the Urban Planning Reforms, and the role of local authorities. Participants debated on what and how should be done for giving city-level planners more responsibility but also making them more responsive to the reality. Other topics included: Costs of Implementation-The Costs of Inaction; Costs of Implementation-Linking Spatial Planning with Financial Planning; World Bank Institute Urban E-learning Curriculum; and Urban Planning and Land Management Self-Assessment: purpose, scope, template/questionnaire.

NALAS organized two very important meeting in Skopje between 12 and 15 of June 2007. One discussed fiscal decentralization issues and opportunities in the region and the second one covered challenges in urban planning. This meeting gathered urban planning experts, NALAS members and a representative from GTZ and resulted with possible projects that could contribute towards solving urban planning issues in the region. The Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia will be the host of this working group and the Task Force that may emerge from this group.