Draft Environmental Protection Strategy will soon be open for public discussion

Vrdnik, July 4, 2023 - Over 80 participants, including representatives from relevant ministries in the Government of Serbia, the academic community, and civil society, attended the Fourth Meeting of the Working group for the development of the Environmental protection Strategy - Green Agenda for Serbia. The aim of this strategic document is to define priorities in the field of environmental protection. The meeting was organized by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in partnership with the "EU for Green Agenda in Serbia" project team.

"The document we are working on is of great importance to all of us individually, as well as to the Republic of Serbia, as it is an umbrella document that concerns all ministries and institutions. We are in the final stage of drafting the document, and our plan is to send it to the relevant ministries for their opinion by the end of the year, so that it can be adopted in 2024. The activities defined in the Action plan in September need to be harmonized with the planned budgets for the following year," announced Sandra Dokić, the State secretary in the Ministry of Environmental Protection. She added that the Green Agenda will be included in the methodology for monitoring green financing, as financial institutions increasingly require projects to have a green component.

"In the process of drafting this document and implementing the Green Agenda in Serbia, it is important to try to define sustainable financing mechanisms for measures and activities that contribute to the implementation of the Green Agenda in our country. UNDP is ready to provide support in the construction and further strengthening of institutional capacities, considering the demanding activities related to the implementation of this Strategy," said Miroslav Tadić, the Team Leader for Climate Change and Environment at UNDP.

During the two-day workshop, the general and specific goals of the Strategy were discussed, along with the analysis of the planned measures, indicators, and activities, and the projection of the financing costs of the Strategy. The document is expected to be ready for the consultation phase with interested actors from the academic community, business sector, civil society organizations, and international organizations in September of this year when the Draft Strategy will be made available on the eConsultation portal. The consultation process will continue in October with the presentation of the Draft Strategy to local governments in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, Bor, and Užice. The general public will have the opportunity to comment on the document at a public hearing planned for January next year.

The project "EU for Green Agenda in Serbia", with the technical and financial support of the European Union and in partnership with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, is implemented by UNDP in cooperation with the Embassy of Sweden and the European Investment Bank (EIB), with additional funding from the Governments of Sweden, Switzerland and Serbia.