Greeting the representatives of civil society, members of the organisation, Blazic commended their contributions to the improvement of environmental protection. He stressed that the Green Chair as a mechanism was established by Environmental Protection Committee Decision in 2013 and reminded the assembly of the existence of the Green Parliamentary Group, urging both to give their full contribution to the protection of the environment. The existence of a relevant ministry, secure funding system, legislative drafting in cooperation with the citizens and representatives of civil society and the participation of the non-governmental sector in the National Assembly’s work are crucial, stressed Blazic. He asked the MPs and citizens to use their influence and enthusiasm to raise the decision-makers’ awareness of the importance of environmental protection.

Milica Vojic Markovic, the Environmental Protection Committee Chairperson in the previous parliamentary legislature, spoke of her experiences, the establishment of the Green Chair and inclusion of civil society in the Committee’s work, with a special focus on the fact that Serbia does not have a ministry in charge of the field of environmental protection. She spoke of the general lack of concept and idea as regards environmental protection, the fact that the laws regulating the area were passed in a very short time, the manner in which the Committee discussed the reports of the Environmental Protection Agency and a sort of failure when it comes to winning the media over to keep the public informed on environmental issues. The legislative framework, funding, education of the administration which should implement the legislation, remain open issues, as does the work on raising public awareness of what the environment and its protection is, concluded Vojic Markovic.

The participants of the meeting also discussed the establishment of a procedure of communication and coordination of the organisations’ efforts and coming up with a common stand, and they also presented the experiences of the Green Chair so far as regards the inclusion of the public into the institutions’ work.

On the occasion, the current Chairman of the Environmental Protection Committee Branislav Blazic, and the Chairperson from the previous legislature Milica Vojic Markovic were presented with letters of gratitude for their contributions to the work of the Green Chair.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, Young Researchers of Serbia, Centre of Modern Skills and a number of environmental protection associations.