In the festive hall of the City Administration of Uzice, a conference "Public and civil sector partnership in the establishment of energy management system and effective energy management in local communities" was held. The conference was organized in partnership of Belgrade Open School, Uzice City, RES Foundation, Regional Development Agency Zlatibor and Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Belgrade.

Establishing an energy management system is an important step in improving governance of the public good at the level of local governments. Efficient energy management improves energy efficiency, achieves savings in the budget of local self-government, protects the environment and the health of citizens.

In 2016, this initiative brought together many partners. Besides the Belgrade Open School, the RES Foundation and the Regional Development Agency Zlatibor joined the partnership for energy-sustainable local communities. These three organizations have teamed up to organize local self-government support in establishing an energy management system. The Municipality of Vrbas, a municipality that represents an example of best practice in this area in Serbia, supported this approach to solving the problems of energy management and showed willingness to share its knowledge and experience with colleagues from other municipalities. In 2016, partnership agreements were signed with the city of Uzice and Kraljevo and the municipalities of Trstenik and Paracin.

At the conference that was held on October 31, the deputy mayor of Uzice, Nemanja Nesic, the Mayor of Vrbas Milan Glusac, director of the Regional Development Agency Zlatibor Slavko Lukic, as well as the representatives of the Fridrih Ebert Foundation Ivana Racic, Aleksandar Macura from the RES Foundation and Mirko Popovic From the Belgrade Open School, delivered an address to the guests.

In addition to the Office for Energy Management of the Municipality of Vrbas, examples from the Republic of Croatia are presented as examples of a good  practice. The current state of the energy management system, energy cooperatives and good examples of energy management at the local level in the Republic of Croatia was presented by Milan Čačić from the United Nations Development Program in the Republic of Croatia, as well as the representative of the Green Energy Cooperative - GEC Zoran Kordić.

In order to effectively coordinate and increase the effects, the initiative of the German Agency for International Development - GIZ "Energy Efficiency of Public Buildings in Macvan, Kolubara and Zlatibor District" was presented. Milos Radojevic, Regional Coordinator for Western Serbia on the project, spoke about the topic.

The last session at the conference was organized in a form of discussion and discussion with participants highlighting possible problems in the implementation of energy management, proposed solutions and agreed next steps within the initiative. The discussion was led by Mirko Popovic, from the Belgrade Open School and Aleksandar Macura from the RES Foundation.