In accordance with clearly specified criteria for an open competition for secondary school students’ scholarships and the available budget, the Coordination Body is going to award scholarships to 151 students, out of whom 57 of them are from Presevo, 55 from Bujanovac and 39 from Medvedja. The overall value of the awarded scholarships is three million and twenty thousand (3,020,000) dinars. The scholarships were given to all students without one of the two parents, as well as to poverty stricken ones, provided all of them had achieved good school results during the previous school years. The total of 819 secondary school students, out of whom 444 are from Presevo, 256 from Bujanovac and 119 from Medvedja, entered the open competition, which the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia announced on June 25, 2009. Any objections to the rank list of the applicants, which should be supported by appropriate documentation, as well as requests, should be submitted to the Office of the Coordination Body immediately after the issuing of the rank list and not later than eight days.

A  meeting between mayors of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja on the one side, and Zarko Obradovic, Minister of Education, on the other, was held in an atmosphere of constructiveness and openness. The meeting was initiated by Milan Markovic, President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja and Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, for the purpose of facilitating the understanding of major issues in the field of education in the said three municipalities.

Aleksandar Vesic, Assistant Minister for Environment and Spatial Planning, stated yesterday that reforms not only at the national level, but also at the local one, are necessary in the field of environment. At a press-conference that was held upon completion of the project entitled „Safety of the Local Environment“, Mr. Vesic said that local self-governments should have special offices for taking care of the local environment. He added that 30 per cent of the laws that Serbia should bring into line with the European Union refer to environmental protection. He also said that industrial contamination poses the greatest risk to environment. Thomas Moore, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, who provided assistance with implementation of the project, said that the Serbian rivers are very polluted, particularly those in South Serbia, and added that they served for dumping waste.

The Center for Development of the Jablanica and Pcinj Districts NGO began implementaing a project for reduction of povrety in Serbia, which is funded by the EU.

As part of the activity “One Thousand PCs for Schools in Serbia”, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and President of the Coordination Body for South Serbia Milan Markovic and Director General of the Public Enterprise of PTT Traffic “Srbija” Goran Ciric donated, on September 18, 2009, to the IT Room of the elementary school “Bora Stankovic” in the village of Klenike, the Bujanovac municipality, seven PCs and two printers.

The Republican Ombudsman’s offices are going to be opened in Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja by the end of this year. Each of them is going to work on specific workdays; while in the meantime, the premises of the offices will be used for other purposes. The offices’ employees are going to be part of the Ombudsman’s expert team that will be in charge of contacting the citizens and receiving their complaints. Members of ethnic minority communities will be particularly encouraged to apply for the job in the offices.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, As part of the activity “One Thousand PCs for Schools in Serbia”, Milan Markovic, President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja and Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, and Goran Ciric, Director General of the Public Enterprise of PTT Traffic “Srbija”, are going to donate seven PCs and two printers to the IT Room of the elementary school “Bora Stankovic” in the village of Klenike, situated in the municipality of Bujanovac. Minister Markovic and Director General Ciric are going to deliver the IT equipment to students of the school at 1 pm tomorrow, September 18, 2009. Free access to the website of the PE of PTT Traffic “Srbija” has been provided, via the Internet, to students of the elementary school “Bora Stankovic.”

The implementation of two projects in South Serbia is to begin soon. The aim of both projects is to reduce tensions and risks of conflicts arising among interethnic communities living in this part of Serbia. The agreements on implementation of the projects „ Capacity Building for Inclusive Local Development in South Serbia“and „Promoting the Preservation of Peace in South Serbia“were yesterday signed on the premises of the Serbian government by Milan Markovic, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, and William Infante, UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia.

The third session of the Presidency of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja was held since representatives of the Albanian community had rejoined the Coordination Body. The session was attended by all members of the Presidency, representatives of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights.

The Coordination Body Office’s commission reached a decision on funding the projects included in the open competition for implementing the projects of associations of citizens in the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja in 2009, as well as a decision on financing the projects included in the Program for distribution and use of the funds for the programs of achieving and  improving social and minority rights, as well as particular qualities of the minorities in the territory of the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja in 2009.