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Serbia; The most expensive and demanding chapter in ecology

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In the negotiations with European Union, Serbia has opened ten new chapters, and two of those are temporarily close. One of the most demanding and most expensive is ecology.

According to the RTS, the expert public criticized that not enough effort is invested in the Environment protection issue, where the competent ministry answers – first priorities and then the deadlines. Most demanding, problematic, and most expensive – this is how the Chapter 27 is described. About 700 European environmental protection acts need to be transferred into Serbian legislation. The ministry has set priorities.

“The historical pollution has been burdening us for several decades, and financing the environment issue remains a problem that we will solve. The third issue is waste management and waste water treatment”, notes Ivan Karić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, for RTS.

We have about 50, and we need more than 300 water purification plants and serious staff reinforcement. The air we breathe is polluted, warned the World Health Organization in Serbia and noted that there are more and more premature deaths caused by air pollution.

“Last year, the Environmental Fund, called the Green Fund, was created but remained within limited budget lines and even more limited effects. Discussion about the next year’s budget is in progress and if things remain at this level, as in 2017, then we’ve got a “recycling ministry”, which I believe none of us want.”, notes Tanja Petrović from Young Researchers of Serbia, Coalition 27.

We adopt the regulations slowly, often out of sight of the public, we do not implement them sufficiently and we do not have the capacity for surveillance, noted in the Coalition 27 report. The European Union is rigorous in terms of environmental standards.

“It is good that we know that it is difficult for all countries in the accession process to meet these standards, so there is a transitional period in which the candidate country, along with the EU, is working to bring those standards closer, and the bad news is that even when you are a member state of the European Union, the commission can punish you if you do not apply all standards and all environmental directives, ” noted Antoine Avignon of the EU Delegation in Serbia.

Ivan Karic notes, that they will be no rushing in opening the chapter, even though it’s expected to be opened in the first half of 2018.

“We will not bring Serbia into the position like in Romania and Bulgaria, which are now paying penalties for non-fulfilment of environmental obligations, more than the money they received from European funds to solve the ecological situation,” Karic said.

It is expected that the Government will soon appoint the head of the negotiating group for Chapter 27 and complete the documentation necessary for a meeting which will be held in Brussels in few months.

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