Over recent years in Montenegro it has become possible to obtain financial resources from the EU funds by applying to tenders. Unfortunately, this possibility has not been used in an efficient way because it has been proved by practice that there is a lack of sufficiently developed capacity, primarily of knowledge and abilities of people, for writing and managing projects in accordance with the strict EU procedures. The main reason for such situation is the fact that obtaining funds for projects represents a new thing in an ex-socialist country where until recently financing was limited to funds allocated from the state budget, in a strictly centralized system.
Today, each democratic society is expected to have widely developed level of active citizens, from those employed in state sector, business, institutions, non-governmental organizations to those who act individually but possess knowledge and skills needed for writing and managing projects, and conducting adequate evaluation and reporting to the donors in the course of the project.
In the previous period it has become evident that non-governmental sector in Montenegro, as a young and vital part of the society, is the one that has acquired, in the fastest way, new knowledge referring to project-oriented thinking and acting and realized the importance of those, often substantial funds, for addressing numerous problems in the community. Despite the vitality of non-governmental sectors, general power, primarily of state institutions in Montenegro, to draw resources from EU funds has proved to be at a quite low level, and the reason for this is primarily lack of information and knowledge of procedures and techniques for writing and managing projects and grants.
Since decentralization is one of the main principles of a modern society, it is the level of local community that has to express readiness and ability for accessing funds which are aimed at considerably improving budgets of the municipalities, providing in that way conditions for better viewing and addressing problems at local level, which would finally result in improving quality of life of citizens.
Montenegro has expressed a strong determination for accessing EU and the need for teams of people capable of managing resources from EU funds is sure to increase in the future. It will be especially important to empower local governments in this sense because the majority of programmes are intended for them.
In short, main problems that will be solved by such a project are:
• Insufficently developed local (human) capacities for managing EU funds in Montenegro
• Lack of information at all levels about possibilities of obtaining financial resources from the EU funds as well as information about European practices
AIMS OF THE PROJECT:
1. Increasing capacity of local governments in Boka Kotorska for writing and managing EU projects, and raising the level of information about possibilities for applying for EU funds
2. Strengthening partnerships between municipalities in Boka Kotorska and non-governmental organizations, and buiding trust between these sectors through their cooperation
PARTNERS:
The main partner in the project is the Municipality of Kotor. The municipality will be in charge of forming a working group whose memebrs will participate in the project writing training and after the training they will have a task to provide regular information about possibilities for obtaining grants and to use these grants for the realization of their future projects.
The project anticipates cooperation with the College of Management from Kotor, which we recognize as a source of young professionals in the field of management, who might be interested in engaging in the project and acquiring new, more specific knowledge which they can later apply in practice.
Besides the Municipality of Kotor, the project is intended for all municipalities and non-governmental organizations in Montenegro which are members of the PHILIA network and which will be invited to send their representatives to the training with the aim of obtaining knowledge which they can later apply and develop in their local communities, and establish partnerships and useful contacts with other municipalities
Donor: PHILIA - Association of Multuetnic Cities of Southeast Europe Fund: 3.000,00 eur
