The Environmental Protection Committee held its twenty-second sitting on 19 April 2011. The sitting was chaired by Cedomir Jovanovic, Committee Chairman and attended by Minister of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning Dr Oliver Dulic and associates, Head of the Emergency Management Sector at the Ministry of Interior Predrag Maric, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic, Environmental Protection Agency Director Momcilo Zivkovic, representative of Public Utility Company “Standard” Jagodina Dragan Lukic and hygiene specialist from the Serbian Public Health Institute “Dr Milan Jovanovic Batut” Dr Branislava Matic.

The Committee members adopted an amended agenda as they agreed with the Ministry of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning to debate item Ministry of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning 2010 Activity Report – section environment along with the 2010 Environmental Report which is to be submitted in June 2011, at a special Committee sitting planned to include the general public.

The Committee considered the current issues relating to the aftermath of the fires in the old Pomoravka warehouse in Jagodina. Predrag Maric, Head of the Emergency Management Sector at the Ministry of Interior, informed the Committee that the cause of the fire that broke out on 12 April 2011 is still being investigated. The Committee members wanted to know whether the site of the burned waste was a registered dump site meeting the appropriate requirements and whether the resulting carbon dioxide emissions are a danger to the people and the environment. Ljiljana Stanojevic of the Ministry of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning stated that the site was not a registered city dump and its use was banned, adding that the firefighters followed proper procedure. Stanojevic pointed out that the pollution emissions were measured several times a day and workers were banned from sites where elevated levels of carbon dioxide were registered.

The Committee Chairman went on to present the 2011 Environmental Protection Committee Work Programme proposal.

The Committee members considered the civic proposals the Committee had received.

At the initiative of the informal Green Parliamentary Group coordinator Dejan Nikolic the Committee members endorsed the proposal to commemorate Earth Day by organising a lecture for the deputies and civil society by climatic change expert Prof. Vladimir Jovanovic at the National Assembly House.