Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection with the assistance of the EU started a “EAS“ project
The beginning of the project „Further implementation of the National environmental approximation strategy – EAS” was officially launched, implemented by Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection and funded by the European Union. The project will be focused on supporting the relevant Ministry and the Negotiating Group 27 in institution strengthening and strategic planning within the framework of Chapter 27 – Environment and climate change.
„The environment is financially and administratively a challenging field that involves continuous coordination and communication of all relevant institutions. This is confirmed by the fact that 10 billion euros of funds is necessary for environmental approximation, of which is approximately one billion euros for investment in the waste and about 7 billion euros for water supply, sewerage and waste water. This program will help our country in further approaching of the EU acquis in the field of environmental protection, through the strengthening of institutions, improvement of infrastructure and investment planning of new projects in this area“, said Stana Bozovic, State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection.
Deputy Head of the EU Delegation in Serbia, Oscar Benedict, said that so far 6 chapters have been opened and he hopes that Chapter 27 will be opened without initial criteria. „Chapter 27, which concerns the environment, is most complicated when it comes to the number of directives and it constitutes one third of the total European legislation. It is also most expensive and requires huge investments, but it is also most important because it concerns the quality of life of all citizens: the quality of water, air, soil. No other chapter affects to this extent our lives, health, future and other development projects more than this chapter. The project, which starts today, should strengthen the institutional capacity to prepare negotiating positions of Serbia in this area“, said Benedict.
The project „Further implementation of the National environmental approximation strategy“ lasts until October 2018 and includes activities related to the three main components: strengthening of institutions for the implementation of legislation in the field of environment, strengthening the capacity to plan the implementation of EU Directives which require significant financial investment (especially in the field of water and waste) and strengthening capacity for investment and financial planning of projects in the field of environment.
At the conference the experience of Slovenia were presented in the negotiations for Chapter 27, as well as experience of Macedonia in the area of costs and benefits related to future development of sustainable investment and implementation of EU requirements in the water sector.