In the ceremonial hall of the City administration of Uzice, 31 October 2016, a conference on "The partnership of public and civil society in the establishment of energy management and effective energy management in local communities" was held. The conference is organized in partnership of  Belgrade Open School, the town of Uzice, RES Foundation, Regional Development Agency Zlatibor and Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Belgrade.

Establishment of the energy management system is an important step in improving the management of public property at the local level. Effective energy management improves energy efficiency, achieves cost savings in the budget of local self-government, and protects the environment and citizens' health.

In 2016, this initiative has brought together numerous partners. Belgrade Open School teamed up with Community for Sustainable Energy and the RES Foundation and Regional Development Agency Zlatibor. These three organizations have joined together to provide the support for local authorities in establishing the system of energy management.  Vrbas, a municipality that is the example of best practice in this area in Serbia, supported this approach of solving the problem of energy management and showed a willingness to share their knowledge and experience with colleagues from other municipalities. In 2016, partnership agreements were signed by with the city of Uzice and Kraljevo and municipalities Trstenik and Paraćin.

On the conference, held on 31 October guests were addressed by the Deputy Mayor of Uzice, Nemanja Nesic, Mayor of Vrbas Milan Glušac, Director of Regional Development Agency Zlatibor Slavko Lukić, as well as representatives of Friedrich Ebert Ivana Racic, Aleksandar Macura from RES Foundation and Mirko Popović from Belgrade open school.

In addition to the Office for Energy Management of Vrbas municipality, as quality examples of good practice were presented examples from the Croatia. The current status of energy management, energy cooperatives and good examples of energy management at the local level in Croatia were presented the Milan Cacic from the Program for UN Development in Croatia and Zoran Kordić- representative of the Green Energy Cooperative. 

Also, in order to effectively coordinate and maximize the effects, presented the initiative of Germany Agency for International Development - GIZ "Energy efficiency in public buildings Macva, Kolubara and Zlatibor district."  It was presented by Miloš Radojevic, regional coordinator of the project for the Western Serbia.

 The last session of the conference was organized in the form of discussions and interviews with the participants where they point out possible problems in the implementation of energy management, the proposed solutions and next steps agreed in the framework of the initiative. The discussion was led by Mirko Popović from Belgrade Open School, and Aleksandar Macura from RES Foundation.

 

Author of the photo: Belgrade Open School