BUJANOVAC - A new guide on how to strengthen the role of civil society in monitoring the work of local self-government will be launched in Bujanovac today.

Presevo - As part of the "Green World" NGO's project "For Sustainable Environment", a training course was conducted for students of the "Skenderbeg" Grammar School in Presevo from November 14 to 16, 2008. The goal of the training was to enable the students for preparing projects and maintaining public relations, which are the skills necessary for obtaining the funds for the projects more easily. The said training was conducted by Redzep Iljazi (SCOPES Program Office Manager) and Armend Aliu (Director of the Office for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship of the Municipalities of Presevo and Bujanovac).

The "Center for Democracy and Development of South Serbia" NGO and the regional press agency "JUGpress" are to organize a meeting in Bujanovac today. Speakers at the meeting include Oliver Ivanovic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Kosovo and Metohija, Roberto Montella, Advisor to Head of OSCE Mission to Serbia, and Nagip Arifi, Deputy Mayor of Bujanovac. The topic to be discussed at the meeting is the future of South Serbia and Kosovo. This is the fifth in a row meeting organized as part of the project "Kosovo on the Other Side." More information on the meeting may be found on the "JUGpress" press agency's website (www.jugpress.com).

A training course for journalists on the right to free access to information and its use in the fight against corruption on the local level starts in Bujanovac today. The course, organized by the OSCE Mission to Serbia, will gather some 20 journalists from Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja to exchange experiences and discuss how the Law on Free Access to Information is applied and how it could contribute to fighting corruption. "Transparency Serbia" Program Director, Nemanja Nenadic, BETA news agency journalist, Zlatko Minic, and OSCE Mission experts will speak at the training course.

DISTRIBUTION OF MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE'S DONATION TO MUNICIPALITIES OF PRESEVO, BUJANOVAC AND MEDVEDJA

Belgrade - October 7, 2008 - Milan Markovic, Head of the Coordination Body for South Serbia and Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, said today that Serbia wouldn't recognize university certificates that in any way call into question Serbia's sovereignty, territorial integrity and policy.

The "Center for Democracy and Development of South Serbia" NGO and the regional press agency "JUGpress" аре гоинг то organize a meeting at which the topics of South Serbia and Kosovo and Metohija will be discussed. The meeting will take place at the Bujanovac Press Center at 1 pm on Thursday, September 11, 2008. The discussants at the meeting include Mr. Dusan Spasojevic, Vice President of the Coordination Body and State Secretary at the Ministry of Defese, Mr. Martin Brooks, Head of the Bujanovac OSCE Office, Mr. Saip Kamberi, Mayor of Bujanovac and Mr. Slobodan Draskovic, Mayor of Medvedja. The facilitator of the event is Ms. Ljiljana Stojanovic, Editor of "JUGpress."

The Newly Appointed President of the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia Milan Markovic Paid a Visit to Bujanovac "Problems in South Serbia to Be Solved Through Joint Work of the Coordination Body and Local Self-Governments"

On Thursday, August 7, 2008, at the initiative of the Serbian Government's Coordination Body for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, the USAID's MEGA (Municipal Economic Growth Activity) Programme organized a working meeting during which representatives of those municipalities had an opportunity to show their presentations for investors to experts in local economic growth, as well as to their colleagues, who were representatives of Kragujevac and Loznica.

Nenad Durdevic, Director of the Office of the Coordinatiion Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medveda, had a meeting with twelve electronic and print media journalists from South Serbia, during which he briefed them on the Coordination Body's activities and operation.