EU enlargement is a two-way process. The new member states benefit from being part of the world's largest trade bloc, with more than 500 million consumers. On the other hand, the EU benefits from expanding into new territories, accepting new cultures and connecting with new markets. Recently, this process has taken on new dimensions as the EU begins to integrate countries on its eastern borders. Many countries have had to undertake major reforms - economic, political and social - in order to meet EU membership criteria. Although these reforms bring prosperity at the national level, they also impose costly domestic investment and present challenges on the road to EU accession. In order to facilitate the accession process, the EU has created various types of assistance, both financial and technical.

In this issue, we additionally refer to the role of the Council of the local government unit, ie the activities and competencies performed by municipal councilors. The manual has great symbolic significance for ZELS and municipalities, because through it ZELS, establishes the first step of mutual communication with the newly elected structures in all its members. These are all 80 municipalities in the Republic of Macedonia, together with the City of Skopje, as a separate unit of the local government. The handbook also opens the horizon for further joint lobbying to improve legislation and ensure greater financial independence of municipalities, strengthened municipal councils, the creation of effective and efficient administration and better municipal services. In particular, the manual should provide the basis for further improvement of joint efforts to provide modern European municipalities, in which citizens will have good living conditions and quality services.
 

The Community Forum is a tool for involving citizens in the municipal decision-making process that began in 2006 in the Republic of Macedonia, at the initiative of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). This process took place in parallel with the process of decentralization in the country, which in 2005 gained a real dimension with the beginning of the implementation of fiscal decentralization, which allowed the laws that were adopted in previous years to begin to take effect. The program, over 10 years, had several phases, and 59 municipalities implemented 111 forum processes with several types of forums - project, inter-municipal and budget.