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The City of Bijeljina

City of Bijeljina and Caritas Switzerland together towards energy efficiency



​Memorandum of Cooperation was signed today between the City of Bijeljina and Caritas Switzerland. Mayor Ljubiša Petrović and the president of the City Assembly, Aleksandar Đurđević, signed the Memorandum on behalf of the City, while Daniel Bronkal, director of Caritas in BaH, and Robert Kastelić, administrator for BaH, signed the Memorandum on behalf of Caritas.
 
The cooperation is related to the energy efficiency projects and use of renewable energy sources. The obligation of the signatories is to support the mechanisms which will mitigate the sensitivity to climate changes, most of all assessment of risks, promotion of clean, safe and efficient energy, as well as directing towards local economy which will have low carbon emission.
 
This cooperation will be based on following current legislation, transparency of information important for the implementation of agreed activities, and taking equal responsibility for their implementation.
 
Also, there is a plan to prepare and implement joint projects, transfer technology, exchange information and documents, exchange experts, delegations and apprentices, to improve cooperation with the non-governmental organisations regarding the programmes and initiatives related to the environment and sustainable development.
 
- It is a pleasure to sign such a memorandum on behalf of the City of Bijeljina. We are grateful for all Caritas has done for Bijeljina in the previous period. As a socially responsible organisation, Caritas donated significant funds directly to Bijeljina. One example is the amount of BAM 50,000 which was donated during pandemics to create social aid packages for our citizens. This shows how much we are bound by previous partnership – mayor Petrović pointed out.
 
Looking back at the signed memorandum, he explained some of the planned activities in the forthcoming period.
 
- City of Bijeljina formed a commission with a task to visit primary schools and determine their condition. According to their condition, they will be nominated for reconstruction projects, first of all the roof of the primary school “Jovan Dučić”. There are also problems in other primary schools. Together with Caritas we will strive to act towards improvement of pre-school education, raising environmental awareness and improvement of energy efficiency in our city – said Petrović.
 
President of the City Assembly, Aleksandar Đurđević, confirmed the good cooperation with Caritas.
 
- We signed the memorandum of cooperation, we have done a lot of things in the previous period – specifically I am talking about the City of Bijeljina and this organisation. Now, it is time for a project related to energy efficiency. We talked about renewable energy sources, and Bijeljna is very interested in such projects. Primarily, this is related to geothermal water, since we have a great potential in this area. It is in the best interest of this city to have projects for heating the city, which will save money, and we will change to renewable energy sources.
 
This is a good model to have the City Assembly and the mayor working together on these projects which are in the best interest of Bijeljina and our citizens, and to leave politics and less important issues aside – said Đurđević.
 
Director of Caritas in BaH, Daniel Bronkal, also expressed his satisfaction.
 
- We have had a great cooperation with the City of Bijeljina for years; we implemented a number of different activities – from social integration and housing issues of Roma to energy efficiency projects. It is a pleasure to sign the memorandum not only with the mayor of Bijeljina, but also with the president of the City Assembly. This shows the seriousness of this memorandum and future activities we are going to implement – said Bronkal.
 
Memorandum enters into force on the day of signing and shall remain in force to the end of 2022. Financial contribution of Caritas for the realisation of planned projects will depend on joint activities, while the City of Bijeljina will contribute with BAM 100,000 in 2022.