At the conference “Swiss support for energy management in municipalities – management of the energy crisis”, the international recognition „European Energy Award Serbia“ was awarded by the Ministry of Mining and Energy to Užice, Kruševac and Paraćin. Vrbas was awarded the national recognition „Pioneer European Energy Award Serbia“.
The European Energy Award is an international quality and certification system for energy management and applied in more than 1,700 municipalities and cities with more than 70 million citizens. The system evaluates the work of local self-government units in six areas: (1) development strategy and spatial planning, (2) municipal buildings and infrastructure, (3) supply and disposal, (4) mobility, (5) internal organization and (6) communication and cooperation.
As part of the “Municipal Energy Efficiency and Management Project”, implemented as part of the Swiss-Serbian bilateral cooperation, experiences and tools applied within the European Energy Award were piloted in Serbia in the four cities and municipalities of Užice, Kruševac, Paraćin and Vrbas. In this way, their fulfillment of legal obligations was achieved as well as capacity building was conducted.
At the same time, the Swiss government provided grants through the MEEMP project for the reconstruction of ten schools and four kindergartens, improving energy efficiency and comfort for end users with expected energy savings of more than 3,500 MWh per year in all four municipalities and thereby increasing the local authorities’ performance in area 2, municipal buildings and infrastructure.
The municipalities’ efforts resulted in the awarding of the first European Energy Award certificates in Serbia.
