Supporting sustainable housing & urban development in Serbia
EKYL shares experiences with the Serbian government
Belgrade, 7 December 2015Andres Jaadla, Chairman of the Board of the Estonian Union of Co-operative Housing Associations (EKYL) and a Housing Europe Board Member participated at a workshop organized to strengthen the national capacity for sustainable housing and urban development in Serbia.
Andres noted that the developments in housing in Serbia are evident: „The war damages in districts of apartment buildings in the urban centres in Serbia today mark the difficulties that Serbian society had to overcome. This is something that Estonians understand well, although Estonia hadn’t suffer at the same degree when it regained its independece“.
Serbian colleagues showed vivid interest in EKYL’s experiences with apartment associations and refurbishment programs. In his presentation Andres Jaadla focused on developments in the housing sector and clarified some ownership-related questions in Estonia. The rapid developments in housing after the collapse of the Soviet Union in Estonia can be useful examples for countries with economies in transition today.
„The Government of Serbia is planning a comprehensive set of activities aiming at improving the quality and affordability of housing and exchange of experiences with other countries could be very beneficial within this process. The next steps will be reviewing of legislation and programs for engaging and motivating inhabitants”, concluded Andres.