News
Law on Communal Activities
Today's entry into force of the Law on Communal Activities (Official Gazette of RS No. 88/2011) determines communal activities and regulates the general conditions and manner of their performance.
The Law should enable private investments and better conditions for doing business in the field of communal services. The proponent of the Law stated that this regulation will enable "transparent" and easy entry of private capital through public-private partnership. In addition, the Law determined some new communal activities, such as chimney sweeping services, which thus became binding on the territory of the whole Republic of Serbia.
Communal activities in terms of this Law are activities of providing communal services of importance for the vital needs of physical and legal entities in which the local self-government unit is obliged to create conditions for ensuring appropriate quality, scope, availability and continuity, as well as supervision over their performance. Communal activities are the activities of general interest.
Communal activities are the following:
- supply of drinking water;
- treatment and disposal of atmospheric and wastewater;
- production and distribution of heat energy;
- municipal waste management;
- city and suburban passenger transport;
- cemetery management and funeral services;
- public parking lots management;
- providing public lighting;
- market management
- maintenance of streets and roads;
- maintaining cleanliness on public areas;
- maintenance of public green areas;
- chimney sweeping services
- a zoo-hygiene activity.
(Article 2 of the Law on Communal Activities)
When it comes to chimney sweeping services, the Law defines that these services include cleaning and control of smoke extraction and firebox facilities and devices, as well as ventilation ducts and devices.
- With the entry into force of this Law, we finally got the long-awaited legal framework for the reform of communal activities, especially chimney sweep services, which have not been reformed in Serbia for decades, said Goran Miličević, Director of EKO-DIM LLC and adds, - Our company, as a member of the group for chimney sweeping services at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, actively participated in compiling the draft version of the Law on Communal Activities, and that is why we are especially glad that chimney sweeping services have been placed where they belong, among communal services. It is important to point out that by increasing the competition in performing communal activities, which can also be done by companies such as Ekodim, citizens as end users of these services get a better quality service at more affordable prices.