29 October 2019 - At the seventh session of the Council for Cooperation between State Administration Bodies and NGOs, chaired by Minister of Public Administration Suzana Pribilović the officials discussed the Draft Law on Volunteering.
This law regulates incentive measures for promoting and developing volunteering, the rights and duties of volunteers and organisers of volunteering, and other issues of importance for the development and promotion of volunteering.
The Council embraced the Draft Law on Volunteering and suggested to the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to re-examine Articles 1, 5 and 10 of the Draft Law to create an adequate legal basis for the further development of volunteering and creating incentive measures for volunteer organizes and volunteers. Volunteering was praised as a voluntary and free investment of time, knowledge and skills to carry out activities for the benefit of others and for the general welfare of the community, as well as the intention to prevent abuse of volunteers.
The Council recommended that, upon the adoption of legislation in the Assembly, the creation of an Incentive Measures Program should be initiated, reports the Ministry of Public Administration.
The drafting of the Law on Volunteering is one of the measures set out in the Action Plan of the Strategy for improving the incentive environment for the work of NGOs.
The implementation of the Law on Non-Governmental Organisations and associated by-laws were also discussed at today's session, and it was agreed that the next session of the Council will be thematic and dedicated to the analysis of the provisions of these acts, the implementation of which proved challenging in practice, but also of all aspects that influence the analysis of the effects of the implementation of the new model of financing NGO projects in accordance with the aforementioned Law.
Concerning the timing of the publication of decisions on allocation based on public competitions announced in 2019, it was once again pointed out that it was not at a satisfactory level, and that the Council's recommendation that the relevant decisions be taken within a reasonable timeframe should be repeated.
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