- Municipalities and cities of Serbia
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Main article: Administrative divisions of Serbia
Municipalities of Serbia.
Serbia is divided into 150 municipalities (Serbian: opštine) and 24 cities (gradovi), which are the basic units of local self-government.[1] The city may and may not be divided into city municipalities (gradske opštine). Five cities, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac and Požarevac comprise several city municipalities, divided into "urban" (in the city proper) and "other" (suburban). There are 31 city municipalities (17 in Belgrade, 5 in Niš, 5 in Kragujevac, 2 in Novi Sad and 2 in Požarevac).Of the 150 municipalities, 83 are located in Central Serbia, 39 in Vojvodina and 28 in Kosovo. Of the 24 cities, 17 are in Central Serbia, 6 are in Vojvodina and 1 in Kosovo.[1]
Contents
Municipalities
Like in many other countries, municipalities are the basic entities of local self-government in Serbia. The head of the municipality is the President of the municipality, while the executive power is held by the Municipality council, and legislative power by the Municipality assembly. Municipality assembly is elected on local elections (held every 4 years), while the President and the Council are elected by the Assembly. Municipalities have their own property (including public service companies) and budget. Only the cities officially have mayors (gradonačelnici), although the municipality presidents are often informally referred to as such.
The territory of a municipality is composed of a town (seat of the municipality) and surrounding villages. The municipality bears the name of the seat town[2] (e.g. the territory of the Municipality of Kikinda is composed of the town of Kikinda, which is the seat of the municipality, and surrounding villages.).
Advocates of reform of Serbian local self-government system point out that Serbian municipalities (with 50,000 citizens in average) are the largest in Europe, both by territory and number of citizens, and as such can be inefficient in handling citizens' needs and distributing the income from the country budget into most relevant projects.[3][4]
Cities and city municipalities
See also: List of cities in SerbiaCities are another type of local self-government. The territory with the city status usually has more than 100,000 inhabitants,[1] but is otherwise very similar to municipality. There are 24 cities (gradovi), each having an assembly and budget of its own. Only the cities have mayors (gradonačelnik), although the presidents of the municipalities are often referred to as "mayors" in everyday usage.
As with a municipality, the territory of a city is composed of a city proper and surrounding villages (e.g. the territory of the City of Subotica is composed of the Subotica town and surrounding villages). Every city (and municipality) is part of a district. The only exception is the City of Belgrade, which is a district on its own.
The city may or may not be divided into city municipalities. Five cities: Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac and Požarevac comprise several city municipalities, divided into "urban" (in the city proper) and "other" (suburban). Of those, only Novi Sad did not undergo the full transformation, as the newly formed municipality of Petrovaradin exists pretty much only formally; thus, the Municipality of Novi Sad is largely equated to City of Novi Sad. Competences of cities and city municipalities are divided. The city municipalities of the five cities above mentioned also have their assemblies and other prerogatives.
Municipalities and cities of Kosovo
Main article: Municipalities of KosovoSerbian laws treat Kosovo as integral part of Serbia (Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija). The law on territorial organisation defines 28 municipalities and 1 city on the territory of Kosovo.[1] But, since 1999, Kosovo is under United Nations' administration of UNMIK. The UNMIK administration changed territorial organisation on the territory of Kosovo. In 2000 the municipality of Gora was merged with Opolje (part of the Municipality of Prizren) into the new municipality of Dragaš and one new municipality was created: Mališevo. Later, from 2005 to 2008, seven new municipalities were created: Gračanica, Đeneral Janković, Junik, Parteš, Klokot-Vrbovac, Ranilug and Mamuša.[5] Serbian government does not recognize this move, although some of these new-formed municipalities have Serb majority, and some Serbs participate in local elections. In three of those municipalities: Gračanica, Klokot-Vrbovac and Ranilug, Serbian parties won majority in the 2009 elections.[6][7]
Further information: Serbia's reaction to the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independenceList of municipalities
This is a list of the municipalities in Serbia, as defined by the Law on territorial organization.[1] It does not include municipalities in Kosovo created by UNMIK after 1999. The data on population is taken from the 2002 census.[8] The census was not conducted in Kosovo, which is under administration of UNMIK, so the population numbers are not given for the municipalities in Kosovo.
List of cities and city municipalities
№[9] Crest City District Crest City municipality Area [Km²] Population 1 
Valjevo Kolubara District none 905 90,301 2 
Vranje Pčinja District none 860 82,782 3 
Zaječar Zaječar District none 1,069 58,547 4 
Zrenjanin Central Banat District none 1,324 132,051 5 
Jagodina Pomoravlje District none 470 71,195 6 
Kragujevac Šumadija District Aerodrom 232 36,217 Pivara 258 49,154 Stanovo 155 39,252 Stari Grad 16 62,794 Stragari 165 4,500 7 
Kraljevo Raška District none 1,530 124,554 8 
Kruševac Rasina District none 854 127,429 9 
Leskovac Jablanica District none 1,025 143,962 10 
Loznica Mačva District none 612 78,788 11 
Niš Nišava District 
Medijana 16 88,010 
Palilula 117 71,707 
Pantelej 142 52,290 
Crveni Krst 182 31,762 Niška Banja 145 14,098 12 
Novi Pazar Raška District none 742 92,776 13 
Novi Sad[11] South Bačka District Novi Sad 699 359,951 Petrovaradin (defunct) 14 
Pančevo South Banat District none 759 127,162 15 
Požarevac[12] Braničevo District Požarevac 482 74,902 Kostolac 16 Priština Kosovo District none 854 17 
Smederevo Podunavlje District none 484 107,528 18 
Sombor West Bačka District none 1,178 87,815 19 
Sremska Mitrovica Srem District none 762 85,902 20 
Subotica North Bačka District none 1,008 148,401 21 
Užice Zlatibor District none 667 78,018 22 
Čačak Moravica District none 636 114,809 23 
Šabac Mačva District none 795 115,347 special
status
City of Belgrade none 
Barajevo 213 24,641 
Čukarica 155 168,508 
Grocka 289 75,466 
Lazarevac 384 58,511 
Mladenovac 339 56,389 
Novi Beograd 41 388,354 
Obrenovac 411 70,975 
Palilula 155,902 
Rakovica 29 99,000 
Savski Venac 16 42,505 
Sopot 271 21,390 
Stari Grad 7 55,543 
Surčin 285 38,695 
Voždovac 150 151,768 
Vračar 3 58,386 
Zemun 154 152,950 
Zvezdara 31 137,523 See also
- Administrative divisions of Serbia
- Districts of Serbia
References
- ^ a b c d e Law on Territorial Organization and Local Self-Government, Parliament of Serbia (Serbian)
- ^ Only one municiplaity (Municipality of Gora) does not share the name with the seat town, as the seat of that municipality is the town of Dragaš. This municipality is located in Kosovo, and thus exists only on paper. The territory of the municipality was merged with part of the Municipality of Prizren in 2000 by UNMIK to form new Municipality of Dragaš. This move is not recognized by Serbian Government (see Municipalities and cities of Kosovo section).
- ^ Jerinić, Jelena (2006-12-01). "Konkretni oblici učeća građana" (in Serbian). Lokalna samouprava (Permanent conference of cities and municipalities/Vreme): p. 6. Archived from the original on March 10, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070310201636/http://www.skgo.org/upload/SITE/Publikacije/Casopisi/LS_17-2006.pdf. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
- ^ "Local Communities in Serbia: How to Become an Effective Voice for Citizens" (pdf). USAID/Serbia Local Government Report Program. 2004-07-01. p. 4. http://www.logincee.org/file/9126/library. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
- ^ OSCE Mission in Kosovo: Municipal profiles
- ^ UNMIK: Serb boycott creates new problems, b92, 22 November 2007 (retrieved 4 December 2009)
- ^ Srbima većina u tri opštine, b92, 16 November 2009 (retrieved 4 December 2009) (Serbian)
- ^ Republic of Serbia Agency for Statistics: Population (Census 2002) (Serbian)
- ^ a b As given in the Law, in Serbian Cyrillic order
- ^ "2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of Serbia – FIRST RESULTS". Bulletin (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia) 540. 2011. ISSN 0354-3641. http://media.popis2011.stat.rs/2011/prvi_rezultati.pdf. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
- ^ Staute of the city of Novi Sad, Gazette of the City of Novi Sad No 43 (2 October 2008), official site of the city
- ^ Staute of the city of Požarevac, Gazette of the City of Požarevac No2/2008 (30 June 2008), official site of the city
- Municipalities of Serbia 2008, Statistical Office of Serbia, issued January 2009, ISSN 1452-4856 (Public Domain, see template:PD-SerbiaGov)
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