Serbia to get Green Fund in 2017 – Polluters to finance environmental protection projects

Starting in 2017, Serbia will get a Green Fund for financing environmental protection projects. Five years after shutting down the Environmental Protection Fund, a new one will be formed under a different name but also with a different model of finance. Unlike the previous one, this one will be centralized and for the most part financed by polluters.

This is the requirement by the EU for the opening of the chapter 27, but also the obligation arising form the amended Law on Environmental Protection.

As Blic learns, all the organizational preparations for the formation of the fund are nearly completed at the Ministry of Agriculture, which will be in charge of managing the fund, and the institutional formation will be completed with the adoption of the budget law. A source from the government claims that the new Green Fund will by solely in charge of the state, so as to avoid the pre-2012 situation.

– In local self-governments at the time, green money used to be spent on everything but environmental protection projects. The aim is not to have a dinar spent for any other purpose. What's certain is that polluters will be contributing to the fund and finance environmental protection projects – the Blic interviewee explains.

Brussels has approved this system.

– Environmental protection is one of the most important chapters in the negotiations with the EU, which is why a team of the Ministry of Agriculture is working intensively on creating technical and work conditions for the Green Fund to start functioning after the New Year. Details about the polluters' share in financing are being talked about with the Ministry of Finance, and several models are being considered. Since this won't be sufficient, we are counting on international donations and loans – the Blic source says.

Minister Branislav Nedimovic says that it is true that the Green Fund will start functioning after the New Year.

– This is also a prerequisite for opening the chapter 27. Polluters will provide a considerable part of the funds – he adds.

The Environmental Protection Fund was founded in 2009, and was shut down in 2012 due to misuse and non-transparent activities. The fund failed to implement more than 2,200 signed agreements during its operation, which caused RSD 5.5 billion of debt to accrue.

Fond za zastitu zivotne sredine Republike Srbije

Vlada Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede Republike Srbije

Green Fund

chapter 27

Law on Environmental Protection

Branislav Nedimovic