Municipalities and cities of Serbia explained

Municipalities and cities of Serbia Општине и градови Србије Opštine i gradovi Srbije
Alt Name:	Opštine i gradovi
Caption:	Municipalities and cities of Serbia
Category:	Unitary state
Territory:	Republic of Serbia
Legislation Begin:	Decree of 29 January 1992
Current Number:	145 municipalities + 29 cities 117 municipalities + 28 cities (de facto, excluding Kosovo)
Number Date:	2018
Population Range:	1,063 (Crna Trava) – 1,681,405 (Belgrade)
Area Range:	2.87km2 (Vračar) – 3235km2 (Belgrade)
Government:	Municipal/City Assembly
Subdivision:	Settlements

The municipalities and cities (Serbian: општине и градови|opštine i gradovi) are the second level administrative subdivisions of Serbia. The country is divided into 145 municipalities (Serbian: opštine, singular: Serbian: [[opština]]; 38 in Southern and Eastern Serbia, 42 in Šumadija and Western Serbia, 37 in Vojvodina and 28 in Kosovo and Metohija) and 29 cities (Serbian Latin: Serbian: gradovi, singular: Serbian: [[grad (toponymy)|grad]]; 9 in Southern and Eastern Serbia, 10 in Šumadija and Western Serbia, 8 in Vojvodina and one in Kosovo and Metohija), forming the basic level of local government.^{[1] [2]}

Municipalities and cities are the administrative units of Serbia, and they form 29 districts in groups, except the City of Belgrade which is not part of any district.

A city may and may not be divided into city municipalities (Serbian: gradske opštine, singular: Serbian: gradska opština) depending on their size. Currently, there are six cities in Serbia with city municipalities: Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Požarevac, Užice and Vranje comprise several city municipalities each, divided into "urban" (in the city proper) and "other" (suburban). There are 30 city municipalities (17 in Belgrade, 5 in Niš, and 2 each in Novi Sad, Požarevac, Užice and Vranje).^[3]

Definition

Municipalities and cities

See main article: List of cities in Serbia.

MunicipalitiesLike in many other countries, municipalities are the basic entities of local government in Serbia. The head of the municipality is the President of the municipality, while the executive power is held by the Municipal council, and legislative power by the Municipal assembly. Municipal 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 (Serbian: gradonačelnici), although the municipal 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 (e.g. the territory of the Municipality of Čoka is composed of the town of Čoka, which is the seat of the municipality, and surrounding villages). The municipality bears the name of the seat town. Only one municipality (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 recognised by Serbian Government (see Municipalities and cities of Kosovo section).

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 residents, and as such can be inefficient in handling citizens' needs and distributing the income from the country budget into most relevant projects.^{[4] [5]}

Cities and city municipalitiesCities 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 27 cities (Serbian: gradovi, singular: Serbian: grad), each having an assembly and budget of its own. Only the cities have mayors (Serbian Latin: Serbian: gradonačelnici, singular: Serbian: 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 exception is the capital Belgrade, which is not part of any district.^[6]

The city may or may not be divided into city municipalities. Six cities: Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Požarevac, Užice and Vranje comprise several city municipalities. Competences of cities and these municipalities are divided. The municipalities of these cities also have their assemblies and other prerogatives. Two largest city municipalities by number of residents are the Novi Sad (307,760) and New Belgrade (212,104).

Of these six cities, only Novi Sad did not undergo the full transformation, as the newly formed municipality of Petrovaradin exists pretty much only formally;^[7] thus, the City municipality of Novi Sad is largely equated to city of Novi Sad. The city of Kragujevac had its own city municipalities from 2002 until 2008. In 2013, the city municipality of Sevojno within the city of Užice was established.^[8]

Municipalities and cities of Kosovo

See main article: Municipalities of Kosovo and List of cities in Kosovo. Serbian law still treats Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia (officially the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija), although Kosovo declared independence in 2008. The Law on Territorial Organization defines 28 municipalities and 1 city on the territory of Kosovo.^[1] Kosovo was under official United Nations' administration (UNMIK) from 1999 to 2008. The UNMIK administration changed the 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, Elez Han, Junik, Parteš, Klokot, Ranilug and Mamuša.^[9] However, the Government of Serbia does not recognise the territorial re-organisation of Kosovo, 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 a majority in the 2009 elections.^{[10] [11]} In the Brussels Agreement, in 2013, Serbia agreed to disband its parallel municipal institutions in Kosovo, while the authorities of Kosovo agreed on creation of the Community of Serb Municipalities. However, both parties acted slowly to put this agreement in power.^{[12] [13]}

List of municipalities

This is a list of the municipalities in Serbia, as defined by the Law on territorial organisation^[1] It does not include municipalities in Kosovo created by UNMIK after 1999. The data on population is taken from the 2011 census.^[14]

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.

No.^[15]	Emblem	Municipality	District	Area [km<sup>2</sup>]	Population
63				629	20,635
86				932	18,686
93				1,089	37,056
29				344	17,610
41				368	8,331
89				271	11,458
50				264	11,380
105				655	31,259
77				721	15,516
51				760	12,737
21				264	11,104
80				337	22,000
90				524	7,438
33				308	29,893
145				312	1,663
102				319	12,536
143				456	29,101
78				186	15,475
92				329	14,335
84				279	12,754
20				384	28,883
31				338	17,462
73				257	13,129
87				184	12,482
74				342	17,295
85				356	14,469
43				836	44,406
83				454	20,897
56				1,090	31,963
3				707	51,863
123				497	14,249
91				193	13,968
117				289	9,150
47				121	18,463
38				325	8,389
32				366	20,871
134				628	20,319
24				571	8,129
138				370	5,091
26				461
112				264
15				951	12,126
8				529	12,307
46				483	10,118
127				422	50,284
28				345	40,902
142				287	30,645
104				542	54,242
122				326	23,551
44				623	23,191
120				366	11,055
27				249	17,966
139				448	42,966
141				124	9,476
2				387	26,522
25				606	16,317
35				239	27,527
119				670	24,678
140				742	31,155
6				376	46,225
137				356	22,329
118				216	11,503
10				136	11,760
65				413	14,237
79				55	7,837
19				306	11,754
76				952	19,213
53				214	16,368
22				828	12,994
66				1,202	31,491
128				525	16,021
9				673	26,022
69				358	12,090
111				426	29,638
146				647	14,745
7				349	18,792
94				581	16,638
115				827	37,059
126				1,059	26,392
113				553	27,133
96				609	23,925
95				273	10,272
52				525	16,841
125				523	13,267
13				596	33,321
88				175	12,031
60				399	25,343
124				293	23,316
1				229	16,991
147				321	11,398
97				305	11,269
130				284	16,317
11				367	14,405
18				487	37,351
34				376	42,092
12				579	55,528
14				158	13,418
49				400	26,134
136				262	15,738
135				170	28,287
17				186	15,726
131				51	8,750
109				383	11,336
100				203	10,440
67				419	25,274
4				602	20,151
16				353	17,367
68				730	33,722
148				687	34,188
57				384	47,433
58				230	10,866
121				582	54,339
132				351	65,792
107				489	19,720
5				333	28,929
103				411	30,154
75				481	43,101
39				290
70				89
82				401
99				105
110				625
144				344
149				134
61				294
150				248
71				509
98				81
40				510
30				289
72				336
81				539
129				374
37				353
55				328
54				123
106				603
59				464
64				403
48				587
45				402
101				401
133				434
114				757
42				310

1.The seat of the municipality is Dragaš

2.Incomplete coverage

List of cities and city municipalities

No.	Crest	City	District	Crest	City municipality	Area [Km²]	Population
1				none		856
2				none		905
3						860
					Vranjska Banja
4				none		1,324
5				none		1,069
6				none		1,324
7				none		470
8				none		782
9				none		835
10				none		1,530
11				none		854
12				none		1,025
13				none		612
14						16
					Niška Banja	145
					Palilula	117
					Pantelej	142
					Crveni Krst	182
15				none		742
16				none		702.7
17				none		759
18				none		1,232
19						482
					Kostolac
20				none		854
21				none		759
22				none		484
23				none		1,178
24				none		762
25				none		1,008
26						667
					Sevojno
27				none		636
28				none		795
special status			none			213
						155
						289
						384
						339
						41
						411
						447
						29
						16
						271
						7
						285
						150
						3
						154
						31

See also

• Administrative divisions of Serbia
• Districts of Serbia
• Cities and towns in Serbia
• Cities, towns and villages in Vojvodina
• Populated places of Serbia
• Municipalities of Kosovo

References

• Municipalities of Serbia 2008, Statistical Office of Serbia, issued January 2009, (Public Domain, see)

External links

• Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities of Serbia

Notes and References

1. Закон о територијалној организацији Републике Србије . Службени гласник Републике Србије . 2007 . 129 . 3–41 . 0353-8389. Law on the Territorial Organisation of the Republic of Serbia.
   Закон о изменама и допунама Закона о територијалној организацији Републике Србије. Службени гласник Републике Србије . 2016 . 18 . 32–34 . 0353-8389. Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Territorial Organisation of the Republic of Serbia.
2. Web site: Pirot, Kikinda i Vršac dobili status grada . . 29 February 2016 . 5 March 2016 . Pirot, Kikinda and Vršac Awarded City Status.
3. Web site: 2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of Serbia. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. PDF. 0354-3641. 21 November 2011.
4. News: Konkretni oblici učešća građana. Jerinić. Jelena. 6. sr. Lokalna samouprava. Permanent conference of cities and municipalities/Vreme. 2006-12-01. 2007-07-31 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070310201636/http://www.skgo.org/upload/SITE/Publikacije/Casopisi/LS_17-2006.pdf . March 10, 2007.
5. Web site: Local Communities in Serbia: How to Become an Effective Voice for Citizens. USAID/Serbia Local Government Report Program. 4. 2004-07-01. 2007-07-31. pdf. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110727041631/http://www.logincee.org/file/9126/library. 2011-07-27.
6. Уредба о управним окрузима . Службени гласник Републике Србије . 2006 . 15 . 3–6 . 0353-8389 . Regulation on Administrative Districts.
7. News: Mijušković. Miroljub. Petrovaradin traži pravu opštinu. 22 March 2017. politika.rs. 13 August 2012. sr.
8. Web site: ОДЛУКА О ИЗМЕНАМА И ДОПУНАМА СТАТУТА ГРАДА УЖИЦА. graduzice.org. Службени лист града Ужица. 22 March 2017. sr. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304211507/http://www.graduzice.org/documents/sluzbeni_list_11__iz_13_1169.pdf. 4 March 2016.
9. Web site: Municipal profiles. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
10. Web site: UNMIK: Serb boycott creates new problems. B92. 22 November 2007. 4 December 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110608083541/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2007&mm=11&dd=22&nav_id=45624. 8 June 2011.
11. Web site: Srbima većina u tri opštine. sr. B92. 16 November 2009. 4 December 2009.
12. News: Kosovo Accuses Serbia of Delaying Brussels Agreement. 4 May 2015. Balkan Insight. 24 March 2015.
13. News: Morina. Die. Kosovo Stalls on Serbian Municipal Association. 19 March 2017. balkaninsight.com. BIRN. 21 November 2016.
14. http://pod2.stat.gov.rs/ObjavljenePublikacije/Popis2011/Knjiga20.pdf Comparative overview of the number of population in 1948, 1953, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2002 and 2011
15. As given in the Law, in Serbian Cyrillic order