Local governments and NGO representatives from Balkans and Europe gathered in a seminar titled "Methods and Tools for Development of Regions: Seminar of Balkan Local Governments". The seminar was held in the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo in 24-26 May 2009.

Organised by United Cities and Local Governments Mediterranean Commission (UCLG-COMMED) and Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS), the seminar hosted regional government representatives from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Slovenia and NGO and local government representatives from Italy, Spain and France. Union of Municipalities of Marmara (UMM) from Turkey was represented in the seminar by Dr. Özgen Keskin , member of the Executive Committes of UMM and Mayor of Yıldırım (district of Bursa), Assoc. Prof. Recep Bozlağan, Secretary General of UMM, and Murat Daoudov, Director of EU & International Relations Centre of UMM. On the other side, Gaye Doğanoğlu, Chair of Sustainable Development Committee represented the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

The Turkish representative and Mayor of Yıldırım Mr Özgen Keskin introduced the touristic and cultural projects of Yıldırım Municipality, especially their projects and practices in Cumalıkızık Village. Cumalıkızık is a 700 years old village preserving its architectural structure and cultural texture of Ottoman times to a great extent and being renovated in accordance with the restoration projects of Yıldırım Municipality. Mr Keskin presented the restoration projects in detail with visual materials in his presentation

Following the presentation of Mr Keskin, Chairman of the City Council of Medijana (district of Nis, Serbia) Dragan Milosavljevic said that there were very important Ottoman buildings in his district, which are in need of renovation. He invited Mr Keskin to Medijana to support the restorations of these buildings.

Associate Prof. Recep Bozlağan presented the new developments in decentralisation theory and focused on the relationships of local government-central government, and local government-citizens. He stated that decentralisation processes were different in each country and he explained these differences with various examples.

The session "Decentralised Cooperation", moderated by Murat Daoudov, focused on the role of local authorities in international cooperation. Representative of the Congress Gaye Doğanoğlu introduced the Adriatic Sea and Black Sea Euro-Regions, established with the support of the Congress.

Source: http://www.marmara.gov.tr/newsdetail.aspx?newsId=338
Source: http://www.commed-cglu.org/spip.php?article251