The Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI) and the Belgrade Open School (BOS) organized the third round of public consultations on March 23, this time on a repeated public hearing on the Draft of the Air Quality Plan for Belgrade. After the first two rounds of consultations, in December 2020 and January 2021, by organizing the third round, we continued the process of conducting public consultations with the aim of involving the public in the process of drafting a new Air Quality Plan for Belgrade. During the previous consultations, it was clear that there is a public interest, as well as the need for competent institutions to involve the public in the development of the plan. Because it is obvious that the City of Belgrade cannot make a plan that will satisfy the needs of the citizens and contribute to the reduction of air pollution.

After the Draft of the Air Quality Plan was exposed to public insight on January 15th, 2021. the public was left for only 15 days to submit their comments. After more than a month, the Secretariat for Environmental Protection published the answers to the submitted comments and re-presented the Draft of the Plan to the public hearing. However, the city authorities did not organize public consultations this time at which the public could express their opinion and propose solutions for improving air quality, either. That is why civil society organizations have organized it again. Introductory speeches, within the public consultations, were given by Mirko Popović (RERI), Aleksandar Macura (RES Foundation), Elizabet Paunović (public health expert), and professor Vladimir Đurđević (Faculty of Physics), after which other participants were included. The event was moderated by Ognjan Pantić (BOŠ).

The great success of BOS and RERI is that during the public hearing on the Draft of the Air Quality Plan for Belgrade, 35 comments were sent, which, compared to 2016, when the public hearing on the previous Draft of the Plan was on, none of the comments were submitted, which shows significant progress and that public consultations are extremely important for the participation of citizens in the preparation of legal documents.

During the public hearings, the panelists agreed that no significant changes had been made to the document itself and the shortcomings pointed out by the participants in the public consultation had not been remedied and that many of the comments sent to the Secretariat for Environmental Protection were lightly rejected, without detailed consideration of the suggestion. The draft plan still lacks: objectives of reducing air pollution, analysis of measures in terms of profit and costs, analysis of the impact of air pollution on public health, precise indicators and deadlines for implementation of measures, an estimate of planned improvement of air quality and the time required as well as an accurate inventory of pollution emissions. Additionally, the participants still agree that the proposed Draft of the Plan should be withdrawn from the procedure, as it does not meet the basic legal criteria and standards that the Air Quality Plan should meet and that the adoption of this documentation and implementation of these measures will not meet the urgent need to solve the problem of air pollution in Belgrade.

Representatives of the City Institute for Public Health also appeared at the last public consultation, who did not agree with the conclusion that the Draft of the Plan was not made in accordance with the Law and the Rulebook on the Content of Air Quality Plans, but stated that they followed the content and requirements of the Rulebook. Representatives of the Secretariat for Environmental Protection of the City of Belgrade appeared at public consultations, but did not participate in the discussion, and employees of the City Public Health Institute, during the discussion, practically took on the responsibilities of the body responsible for drafting the plan, not the one of the developer, as the role of a consultant providing the service.

During the third round of public consultations, the participants had a lot of questions for government representatives and the Plan developers, which shows that this event should be organized by public authorities. It is obvious that citizens want to participate in the process of drafting documents and that it is necessary to enable them to do so. This is precisely the job of the institution that is responsible to the citizens for running the public affairs that are in their jurisdiction.

We invite all those interested to forward their comments on the revised Draft Air Quality Plan by March 25th, by submitting comments to the email address: pkv.bg@beograd.gov.rs. Download the text of the Draft of the Plan HERE.

Author of the photo: Belgrade Open School