Blazic said that the Environmental Protection Committee is open to cooperation with civil society organisation through the Green Chair mechanism which means the participation of civil society representatives at all Committee sittings and public hearings. He also said that the public hearings organized last year had enabled the Committee to define with the help of a wide variety of participants environmental protection problems, especially concerning waste and water management in the Republic of Serbia. The idea is to, having defined the problems, commence gathering specific solutions to them at the public hearings the Committee plans to organize this year. This would help collect material needed to draft new laws in the field to enhance the environmental protection system and prepare the Republic of Serbia for the opening Chapter 27.

Branislava Jeftic, Chairperson of the AP Vojvodina Parliamentary Committee on Urbanism, Spatial Planning and Environmental Protection, and Deputy Chairman Ljubodrag Miscevic invited the National Assembly Committee to have a joint sitting in Novi Sad to exchange experiences and concentrate environmental protection efforts.

The officials agreed that joint efforts through projects at the local level and coming up with a single strategy would raise public awareness and improve environmental protection, adding that the fact there is no environmental protection ministry to deal with environmental issues alone is a big drawback to efforts of this kind.