The working group for the development of the Environmental Protection Strategy met for the fourth time

Representatives of the Young Researchers of Serbia took part in the Working Group’s fourth workshop, which was held on July 3 and 4, as a continuation of the activities on the development of the Environmental Protection Strategy – Green Agenda for Serbia.

During the two-day workshop, a detailed analysis of the results of the selected measures, the specification of the target values for the indicators, as well as the projection of costs and potential funding sources for the strategy, were presented.

Special attention was paid on joint work on developing special goals and measures for the very important horizontal component, proposed by the representatives of civil society and partners in the project VOLVOX – Community Strength (MIS, BOŠ and RERI) as an improvement and expansion of the scope of the National Environmental Protection Strategy as horizontal issues would be covered through: strengthening of institutional and administrative capacities, environmental impact assessment and strategic impact assessment, information and communication with the public, participation in decision-making on environmental issues in accordance with the Aarhus Convention, promotion of gender equality, implementation of digitalization and cooperation with scientific research institutions.

At this Working Group meeting, a newly introduced general strategic goal was presented, along with four specific goals related to horizontal issues: “Improving an integrated approach to environmental management in accordance with the Green Agenda”. Although this improvement occurred at a late stage of the Strategy’s development, it is the result of the joint efforts of partners to improve the participatory framework and boost the influence of civil society.

Workshop participants also had the opportunity to discuss with experts the finalization of the Action Plan activities, deadlines, and responsible parties.

The online presentation of the first draft of the Strategy has been announced for August 1^st, after which the draft document will be sent to members of the Working Group for comments.

The process of developing the Strategy is coordinated by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, with the support of the project “EU for the Green Agenda in Serbia”, which, with the technical and financial support of the European Union and the 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.