During the ceremonial meeting organized by the SEE Urban project and held at the Assembly of the City of Belgrade on February 22^nd, 2018, cities and municipalities of the Great Morava River Basin and the Upper Danube River Basin - Banat Watercourses signed Cooperation Protocols with the aim to reduce disaster risk, ensure more efficient emergency response and easier post-disaster recovery.

Cooperation Protocols involved 12 cities and municipalities of the Great Morava River Basin (Kragujevac, Jagodina, Požarevac, Batočina, Rača, Velika Plana, Smederevska Palanke, Žabari, Paraćin, Svilajnac, Varvarin and Ćićevac) and 19 cities and municipalities of the Upper Danube River Basin - Banat Watercourses (Ada, Alibunar, Bela Crkva, Vršac, Žitište, Zrenjanin, Kanjiža, Kikinda, Kovačica, Kovin, Nova Crnja, Novi Bečej, Novi Kneževac, Opovo, Pančevo, Plandište, Senta, Sečanj and Čoka).

As announced, this important and unique initiative that originated from the local self-governments themselves, will be further disseminated and that appropriate legal framework will be established to allow cooperation in the river basins, especially in terms of human and financial resources for inter-municipal cooperation.

The event participants also witnessed an annual celebration of signing the Cooperation Protocols among cities and municipalities from the Western Morava River Basin and the Kolubara River Basin. Additionally, two projects currently implemented by the UNDP were presented: “Climate Smart Urban Development Challenge” and “South East Europe Urban Resilience Building Action Network (SEE URBAN)”.

Keynote Speakers of this event were Branko Ružić - Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Andreja Mladenović -First Deputy Mayer of the City of Belgrade, Sandra Nedeljković – Deputy Director of the Public Investment Management Office, Predrag Marić - Head of the Sector for Emergency Management and Assistant to the Minister of Interior, Dušanka Golubović - President of SCTM and Mayor of Sombor, and Steliana Nedera - Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP Serbia.

They underlined that disasters do not recognize administrative borders, therefore transnational and regional cooperation is highly needed, in terms of human and financial resources, as well as continuity in preventive measures and strengthening local resilience. It was also stressed that three new laws are currently being prepared: Law on Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Management, Law on Volunteer Firefighting and Law on Critical Infrastructure.