The 16th NALAS General Assembly, held online from 12 until 14 May 2021, was a remarkable event. It brought together over 500 registered participants and 55 speakers, in six events centred around local economic development, by leaving no one behind.
During this General Assembly, Mr. Emanuil Manolov, Mayor of Pavlikeni, Bulgaria, successfully concluded his one-year mandate as a President of NALAS and this important role rotated to Mrs. Tatiana Badan, Mayor of Selemet Municipality in Moldova and President of the Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova (CALM). Mrs. Badan is the 13th NALAS President and the first female President in the history of the Network.
Mrs. Badan is an inspiring woman. She has almost a three decades long experience in local public administration and serves as a Mayor for more than 18 years, in five mandates. Her municipality, Selemet, is the biggest village from Cimișlia District with a population of 4,000. Mrs. Badan is proud of all the improvements she has led in her locality, some of which are the social centre for disabled and vulnerable children, kindergarten, general and music school, local museum, regional market for local producers, various infrastructure investments, etc. For her achievements in 2014 Mrs. Badan was awarded “Mayor of the Year”.
Mrs. Badan is President of CALM since its creation in 2010. Also, Mrs. Badan is very active internationally. From 2016 to 2020 she was the Head of the Moldovan Delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
Mrs. Badan is a consistent promoter of gender equality and of the idea that women must participate in the governance structures at all levels and she advocates for the most active and fair involvement of women in the decision-making processes.
JJ: Mayor Badan, congratulations for the new role you just assumed, President of NALAS. Since you have been a Vice-President of the Network and a Delegate in its General Assembly on behalf of CALM, you are quite familiar with NALAS’ work. What does NALAS mean to you personally, as a Mayor?
NALAS is a very important partner for the Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova. Above all it is a platform of the people united not only by common professional environment, but a platform of the people united by common goals and aspirations – in terms of advocacy, in terms of reforms, in terms of exchange of practices and consolidation of capacities as well as in terms of European and global integration. For me as well as for many of my colleagues, NALAS was the fundamental and the very first school of introduction into the basis of local autonomy and local democracy. The feeling of unification and of being not alone, but supported by the colleagues and friends from different countries was helping us a lot during hard times for local democracy and local autonomy in Moldova. NALAS played a rather important role in creation and consolidation of CALM since its inception. Many NALAS members in their turn have contributed significantly to CALM initiation and development – National Association of Municipalities in Republic of Bulgaria, Association of Romanian Communes, Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities from Serbia. CALM itself can be considered as an important success story of NALAS via its contribution to CALM institutional development, consolidation of CALM capacities and support for CALM members and secretariat.
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Interview with the 13th NALAS President Mayor Tatiana Badan
