Ambassador of the European Union, Mr Sem Fabrizi met with the Minister for environmental affairs, Irena Vujovic. Mr Fabrizi congratulated the Minister and discussed the main issues lying ahead on the European agenda for Serbia in the area of environment.
Ambassador Fabrizi stressed the importance of the green agenda for the EU and Serbia: “EU agreed on a green deal as a key element for the economic recovery and grow and we would like to associate Serbia and the other candidate countries to it as much as possible. The EC Economic and Investment Plan and the Western Balkans Green Agenda adopted at the recent Sofia summit are important building blocks for enhancing the already strong cooperation between the EU and Serbia”.
Ambassador Fabrizi recalled the importance of environment and climate for Serbia’s accession, and in this regard he recalled the need for Serbia to adopt its Climate Law and the Low Carbon Strategy. He also commended that Serbia had been pro-active in January 2020 by passing the Low Emission Strategy – a requirement under the Energy Community.
“Green Agenda goes across several Ministries’ competencies, including in addition of environment, energy, transport and agriculture. It would require a strong cross cutting coordination“.
The EU has been particularly active in this sector which is high beneficial for the citizens and the business. This is even more important during the pandemic. In the area of environment EU donated more than 400M€ in the last 12 years and triggered more than 200M€ of Serbian budget investments, as well as prepared the field for many other domestic and international investors.
In addition to the necessary policy and legislative support to Serbia, the EU has been active particularly active in the area of Waste Water Treatment (WWT) infrastructure – WWT have been built/projected in many cities including Nis, Brus, Blace and Kraljevo – and waste separation at source in 17 Municipalities across Serbia.
“The ecological transition for our Continent can only be fully effective if we all take swiftly action. I am glad that Serbia and the EU share a common objective. I look forward to working closely to supporting Serbia in this regard”, the Ambassador concluded.
Minister Irena Vujović talked about the priorities of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, on the basis of which short-term and long-term plans will be defined.
“We will try to focus on several most important topics, those that are crucial for a better standard and life of the citizens of Serbia, among which are the fight against climate change, air pollution, wastewater management and landfills. Vujovic emphasised that he had the full support of the Government for the fulfilment of those goals.
She added that we strive for all the mentioned areas in environmental protection to be harmonised with EU regulations and standards.
