During the opening address,  , emphasized: “NALAS has developed its new Strategic Plan 2023-2027, an ambitious, yet realistic agenda, which amongst the three key objectives aims to support SEE cities and municipalities to grow into sustainable, smart, inclusive and resilient livelihoods. In achieving this, Energy and Climate planning at local level are very important aspect. We are very happy that NALAS’ decade-long advocacy efforts will finally result with the establishment of a longstanding support system for the Covenant of Mayors members in the Western Balkans and Türkiye in delivering on their pledges under the energy and climate targets.”

The first session, hosted by the GIZ Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe – Energy, Transport and Climate Protection, focused on Multi-level governance in energy and climate planning.  Regional Project, Dubravka Bošnjak, presented the EU4 Energy Transition: Covenant of Mayors in the Western Balkans and Türkiye project and its work on the promotion and setting up of the multi-level governance platform for energy and climate planning.

The participants from South-East Europe exchanged ideas and experiences on multi-level governance approach during the ensuing working group discussions.

In the afternoon, the RCDN Exchange Forum “Advancing human capacities in the water and sanitation sector for greener South-East Europe” hosted by GIZ within the Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe – Modernisation of Municipal Services in collaboration with NALAS, and facilitated by Miodrag Kolic, and Zvonko Naumovski.

The audience was greeted by NALAS Vice President and Mayor of Rijeka, Mr. Filipovic, who highlighted that: “In the past five years, the Regional Capacity Development Network for Water and Sanitation Services project has developed a number of capacity development products that reached thousands of employees in municipalities and public utility companies in the Western Balkans, and what has been done in the Western Balkans has a huge potential to be scaled up beyond the region. This is what NALAS is all about – developing, testing, piloting, collecting best practices, enabling peer exchanges and scaling up, so that knowledge reaches everyone who needs it.”

This event was organised as part of the EU4 Energy Transition: Covenant of Mayors in the Western Balkans and Türkiye project.

Photogallery:

Interregional Exchange on Multi-Level Governance in Energy and Climate Planning