August 29

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with UNDP and UNHCR representatives in Serbia about the assistance these organizations has been providing to the city in the implementation of projects of particular importance to national minorities. The meeting was also attended by Nis City Council Member for Social Care Issues Mrs. Tijana Djordjevic Ilic and Assistant Mayor Goran Milosavljević. Mayor Bulatovic emphasized the openness of the City of Nis to all projects that would improve the quality of life of minority communities and that excellent cooperation has been achieved so far.  UNDP Resident Representative to Serbia Ms. Francine Pickup highlighted the great experience that UNDP has in the implementation of projects all around the world. UNDP Strategic Plan focuses on key areas such as poverty reduction, democratic governance, peacebuilding, climate change and disaster risk and economic inequality. UNDP supports governments in integrating sustainable development goals into their national development plans and policies. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals involves partnering governments, the private sector, civil society and citizens to ensure a better living environment for future generations. The head of the UNHCR in Serbia, Hans Friedrich Schoder expressed satisfaction with the progress in the area of refugee care through existing programs and announced continued support to the Government of Serbia, the civil sector and local governments in addressing key refugee problems.

August 16

The press conference held at the Nis City Hall highlighted the role and importance of Nis Airport in the aviation world, as well as the importance of the City of Nis as the regional center of Serbia. Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic, as well as Director of PE Serbian Airports Mihajlo Zdravkovic and the director of Nis Airport Constantine the Great Dusan Knezevic emphasized that positive trends in the number of airlines, passengers and goods transported that confirmed that the decision to cooperate with the Government of Serbia and the line ministry and state institutions was justified and right. “The criticism that we want to close Nis Airport and banish the low cost airlines has simply proved to be political and completely incorrect. The arrival of the national airline, which opened 12 new routes, not only did not and will not drive other airlines out of Nis, but caused the opposite effect. The number of passengers is increasing, as well as number of destination that you can fly from Nis and the number of regular flights which again is proved by Ryanair which will start flying from Nis to Malta on November 8,”said Mayor Bulatovic. The director of PE Serbian Airport Mihajlo Zdravkovic said that, in recent months, it has been clearly shown that the existing capacities of the airport are in every sense exceeded and that the number of employees has to be increased quickly, as well as the technical capacity for accepting aircrafts, and it is already being intensively worked on. In addition he announced the reconstruction and significant expansion of the departure/arrival building to give passengers greater comfort and much better conditions at the airport. The introduction of a new flight from Nis to Malta confirmed the trend of air traffic development, said also the director of Constantine the Great Airport Dusan Knezevic, who emphasized that in July alone more than 35,000 passengers went through the Nis airport and that, according to current indicators, the number of passenger in August would reach 50 000. He added that in addition to 12 Air Serbia flights and the new Ryanair flight to Malta, Wizz Air would increase the flight dynamics from 2 to 4 to Malmo from April next year. “In addition to the arrival of new airlines, new flights are being introduced by airlines with whom we have long-standing cooperation, which proves that the development of air traffic at this airport has a positive growth trend, and that the projection of about 420,000 passengers annually in 2018 will be realized.” said Director Knezevic.

August 14

City of Nis has joined a group of 210 cities across Europe, representing 62 million citizens, whose mayors and leaders demanded that the European Council and Member States intensify EU commitment to climate change, show global leadership and take an ambitious approach to lead rapid advances in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The open letter, signed by the leaders of cities from 21 EU member states and 7 neighboring countries, was published ahead of the Future of Europe conference in Sibiu, Romania (https://energy-cities.eu/policy/cities-call -for-a-more-sustainable-and-equitable-european-future/). Their demands include: developing a fair and inclusive European long-term climate strategy that will increase resilience to climate change and ensure that greenhouse gas emissions are more than halved by 2030 by 2020 and reach zero net emissions by 2020 2050; advance the EU climate and energy targets by 2030 and targets set at national level to ensure a rapid, equitable and climate-resilient energy transition in line with the above objectives; aligning the next long-term EU budget with this strategy, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and making climate action a priority in all funding programs; obliging all EU Member States to set binding zero net emission reduction targets and other targets above. “As Nis City Mayor I am extremely proud to add my name to this letter signed by mayors from all over Europe,” said Darko Bulatovic, Mayor of Nis. “Our citizens have the same concerns as citizens of all Europe, concerns for their children and for their future. The City of Nis is ready to lead by example the energy transition towards a carbon-neutral future, but we need the support from our government and from all levels of EU to ensure that these ambitious but necessary goals are met. “

August 13^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden in Serbia Mr.  Jan Lundin at Nis City Hall and on this occasion the two officials discussed promoting co-operation and developing bilateral relations. The cooperation so far has been excellent, especially in the field of culture and environment, which is especially true of the project of preparing the tender and technical documentation for the construction of the Waste Water Treatment Plant, which has been supported by Sweden through Sida. Mayor Bulatovic and Ambassador Lundin also stressed the importance of maintaining 3 airline routes from Nis to cities in Sweden, Stockholm and Malmo and recently Gothenburg. According to Ambassador Lundin this will be of great benefit primarily to the numerous Serbian diaspora in this Scandinavian country, as well as to tourists from Sweden who want to get to know this part of Europe as well, because of the rich heritage of this part of Serbia, as well as the many attractive events and festivals, such as the just completed Nisville. It was also estimated that the improvement of air traffic, as well as all other types of traffic, significantly increased the capacities of Nis and this part of Serbia in attracting new investors from this friendly country, which, as agreed, would be the focus of future cooperation between Nis and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden in Serbia.