At their fourteenth meeting held today, the Committee on Tourism, Agriculture, Ecology and Spatial Planning considered and supported the Proposal for the Law on Communal Activities.

The introductory remarks and explanation for adoption of this law were provided by the Minister Branimir Gvozdenović, pointing out the significance of adoption of the systemic law in order to improve the state in this field. The proposed law introduced clear division of competencies between the municipalities and utility companies with regard to construction and maintenance of utility infrastructure; defined ownership over the utility infrastructure; determined new communal activities and the possibility for the municipalities, in accordance with their specifications, to define communal activities of relevance to that municipality; introduced the obligation of signing a contract between the local self-government office and the provider of communal services, as well as between the provider of communal services and the services user; determined the obligation of public tender for delegating tasks of performing communal services; defined more accurately the sources of funding for provision of communal services and established the communal compensation, payable per unit of the real-estate surface as revenue to the budget of the local self-government office.

The Proposal for the Law defined elements and methodology for calculating the cost of communal services, by adopting a separate secondary legislation, then establishing standards and indicators of quality of performance of tasks from the field of communal activities, as well as a series of other novelties aimed at promoting the state in this field. In a discussion, in which most of the MPs participated, it was especially pointed out that the preparation and drafting of this law was approached with due diligence, considering its complexity, because it touched upon a series of other provisions, but also that it was necessary to approach its effective implementation with due diligence corresponding to the modern environment and manner of operations.