The EU Exchange 6 program represents the European Union's support to local governments (LS) in Serbia for key reform processes on the path to EU accession. The program has been implemented almost continuously since 2004, and the sixth phase is funded by IPA 2019 on the basis of a grant agreement signed between the EU Delegation and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) as a national association of all local governments and implementing partner in all phases of the Program.
The content of the program is designed to be in the function of implementing public administration reform (PAR) at the local level and implementing regulations from the scope of the planning and budget system. Within the EU Exchange 6, multi-year work with LS on improving the process of local planning and realistic financing of priorities continues. The program is focused on providing expert support to local governments for the proper and comprehensive implementation of development and medium-term planning, capital budgeting and transparent budget management, and financial management and control and internal audit.
Some program activities are designed to cover all LS in Serbia, while others include a limited number of LS (according to competitions for specific support). During the three-year duration of the Program, two cycles of calls for the selection of LS and the provision of expert support in areas from all program components are planned, with an expected number of over 50 user LS. Horizontal support for all LS is realized in the form of organizing thematic accredited trainings, as well as conducting annual cycles of regional seminars aimed at improving the quality of the budget process and harmonizing the local government budget with planning documents and improving budget transparency, citizen involvement in gender budgeting and gender responsive budgeting. EU Exchange 6 reviews and analytics regarding the implementation of program budgeting and compliance with medium-term LGU plans, mapping of LGU development plans, etc., are directly in the function of reporting on planning documents accompanying the PAR Strategy, i.e. on LS system reform programs (until 2025), financial management, and public policy management.