Coalition 27 assessed that Serbia faces serious work in the environmental area after the opening of the negotiation Chapter 27, as well as that this move forward is not justified by the results of the Government of Serbia so far.
Coalition 27 marked this occasion with a symbolic gift for the Minister of Environmental Protection Irena Vujovic and Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlovic, handing them eight annual Reports of Coalition 27, which contain analyses and recommendations for reforms in this area. By doing this, the Coalition 27, pointed out the accumulated problems in the environment, as well as the exclusion of civil society, professional public and citizens from the decision-making process.
"We still have the hardest part of the work ahead of us in order to reach environmental standards and close Chapter 27. At the same time, we must not forget that the public still has not seen Serbia's negotiating position, and that we do not know what we are negotiating about, what we have committed to, and how much the closure of Chapter 27 will cost. This is an ideal opportunity for the Ministry of Environmental Protection to dust off over 1,600 pages of that document and inform citizens about its content", said executive director of Young Researchers of Serbia, Tanja Petrovic.
In the area of environment and climate change, Serbia has so far made significant progress in adopting European legislation, but its implementation is often lacking. The problems that arise as a result directly affect the living conditions and health of Serbian citizens.
"Serbia is among the top five countries on the European continent in terms of citizens’ exposure to air pollution. Due to unsanitary disposal of waste and illegal landfills, we are faced with soil, surface and underground water pollution and landfill fires. More than 85% of waste water goes into our waterways without any treatment – the Danube is our sewage system. On top of that, the deadline for implementation of the Law on the Integrated Prevention and Pollution Control has been postponed again, which gives permission to the biggest polluters in Serbia, industrial plants, to continue polluting for another three years without consequences. Therefore, the Llaw is tailored to the polluters, instead of punishing them," warned Mirjana Jovanovic from the Belgrade Open School.
The representatives of Coalition 27 stressed that the final goal, the closing of Chapter 27, requires the essential and practical commitment of the Government of Serbia towards achieving European norms in the area of environment and climate change, and that this moment is a good opportunity to approach this process more decisively, with monitoring and measuring the expect results in order to have a healthy environment.
"That commitment would be clearly demonstrated through the improvement of the capacity of state and local self-government in the area of the environment, established funding in this area, and the effective inclusion of all sectors, professional public and civil society organizations in the development and implementation of environmental policies. With the existing capacity and the way of working, we cannot finish all the work and close Chapter 27 – it is like going out on the football field with 6 players and hoping that someone will score a goal," said Goran Sekulic from WWF Adria.
Coalition 27 said that in the coming months it is important to see concrete steps towards the goals set out in Chapter 27, and that otherwise, the opening of Cluster 4 and Chapter 27 will remain only a dead letter on paper.
The press conference of Coalition 27 about the opening of Chapter 27 can be watched on demand on THIS LINK.
Author of the photo: Belgrade Open School