The Centre of Expertise for Good Governance is supporting the Slovak authorities in increasing the capacity of its municipalities to create strategic development plans thereby contributing to good democratic governance at local level. To this end, the Centre of Expertise has started implementing its tool on Strategic Municipal Planning that will guide the selected municipalities in understanding the key steps and resources necessary for the preparation of the strategic planning.

As a first step, the Centre of Expertise trained national experts on the implementation of the toolkit, to empower them for providing further support to the participating municipalities in the course of the next few months. Ultimately, at the end of this process, the municipalities will prepare their own strategic plans that should reflect the vision for the municipal development, while respecting the relevant social needs, citizens’ input, as well as the municipal environmental sustainability.

The Council of Europe is cooperating with the Slovak Association of citizens of towns and municipalities with whom a series of activities will be organised to facilitate the implementation of the tool.

This activity has been organised in the framework of the joint EU - Council of Europe Project "Delivering Good Governance in Slovakia II Phase".