This is the first edition of the NALAS Statistical Brief which is an ongoing effort of NALAS’ Fiscal Decentralisation Task Force to provide policy–makers and analysts with timely, accurate, relevant, reliable and comparable data on local government finance in South–East Europe.

NALAS is supporting Albanian municipalities in the earthquake response operations through a shadowing programme by bringing experienced experts from South East Europe to provide support in earthquake affected areas in Albania.

Over 50 women mayors and women presidents of the municipal assemblies representing local governments from 12 countries of South East Europe (SEE) will gather in Sombor, Serbia from 5-7 December 2019. The Forum will provide an opportunity for exchange among local authorities and their associations related to the role that local governments play in gender mainstreaming, with particular emphasis on the gender responsive budgeting, as well as the importance and benefits of the regional cooperation in this regard.

In a ceremony that took place in Hotel Emerald, the Association of Kosovo Municipalities marked the launching of the AKM’s Training Centre- a new advanced service program for Kosovo municipalities. This project comes as a result of the Association's continuous engagement on lobbying and advocacy on behalf of municipalities towards the Government, the Assembly of Kosovo and other relevant stakeholders, on several issues aiming at improving services for citizens at the local level.

On 24-25 October 2019, The Forum of EaP Local Leaders was organized by the Association of Local Authorities of Lithuania (ALAL), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania and PLATFORMA in Vilnius, Lithuania.

NALAS is seeking a competent Regional Expert on Water and Sanitation. The main objective of the assignment is facilitation of the process of development of the priority objectives and road map of the NALAS Working Group on Water and Sanitation.

Marmara Urban Forum (MARUF), organized by the NALAS member, Marmara Municipalities Union took place for the first time in the Istanbul Congress Center on 1-3 October 2019, under the motto of “Cities Developing Solutions”.

Over 16 and 17 September, 2019 NALAS will participate at the Research Coordination Committee of the H2020-MSCA-RISE-2018 project LoGov – Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay. The Meeting is hosted by the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, one of the implementing partners of LoGov.

NALAS participated at the Advisory Board & Partners' Meeting of the Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF), in Ljubljana on September 10th and 11th. NALAS presented its experience as a knowledge hub for local government development in South-East Europe, through peer to peer learning and exchange, while emphasizing the relevance of involving the local government perspective in the nationally-driven structural reforms, that impact local governments and their operations.

Mr. Jaroslav Hlinka, rapporteur of CoR opinion on EU Enlargement Package 2019 from the Committee of the Regions together with Mr. Boris Tonhauser (Technical adviser) visited North Macedonia during 09-10 September, where they had consultative meetings with the Mayor of Veles, Mr. Ace Kocevski, with NALAS Secretariat, the Minister of local self-government (Mr. Goran Milevski) and the Mayor of Skopje, President of NALAS, Mr. Petre Shilegov.