Organisation of Municipalities in Serbia – Pros and Cons from the Perspective of Urban and Spatial Planning

Abstract

The fields of urban and spatial planning have been significantly changed in Serbia during last 25 years of post-socialist era. These fields have witnessed great changes in legislative framework, socio-economic structure, and implementation connected with everyday practice. The main intention of these changes has been the customization of the entire system of territorial planning to new post-socialist reality. However, municipalities as well as the other levels of the territorial organisation of Serbia have stayed almost intact by their number and size for decades, despite the shift of demographic and economic conditions. But, Serbian municipalities have been particularly important for territorial planning, because they have been the only active level of self-government below national one. This position has given them more active role in territorial planning. Understanding that both urban and spatial planning is strongly connected with territorial organisation, it is questionable how these two sectors have functioned during the last 25 years within the unchangeable shape of municipalities. The purpose of this paper is to explore this issue. The first step, organized as an argumentative essay, will be dedicated to the advantages and disadvantages of the current and prospective organisation of municipalities in Serbia. Then, presented discussion will be an overview from the stance of adequate levels of territorial planning. It is expected to find is current territorial organization of Serbian municipalities suitable for contemporary urban and spatial planning and, if not, which are the ways of its improvement.