The Committee members considered, in principle, the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Environmental Protection Fund, submitted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia and unanimously adopted it. The Committee went on to discuss said Bill in detail. The MPs had submitted a total of seven amendments to the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Environmental Protection Fund. The Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Committee accepted two of the amendments and rejected five. Committee Deputy Chairperson Svetlana Stojakovic Milovanovic was appointed the Committee’s rapporteur to the National Assembly sitting.

The Committee considered the Report on the condition of the environment in the Republic of Serbia in 2010, explained to the assembly by the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency Momcilo Zivkovic who said that the Republic of Serbia has instated an automatic monitoring system comprising 391 automatic monitoring stations. The data transmitted from these stations every 10 minutes shows that Paracin, Kopaonik, Valjevo, Zajecar, Leskovac and Vranje are areas of unpolluted air (category I), Belgrade and Pancevo belong to areas of moderately polluted air (category II), and the town of Bor is excessively polluted (category III) due to intense traffic and individual hearths. Zivkovic added that, according to the new monitoring of surface and underground waters completed after 2002, the concentration of monitored parameters was within acceptable limits. Zivkovic explained that, in the sphere of biodiversity, the number of protected species has been increased and went on to present a joint project, European Union donation – EIONET, aimed at modernising Serbia’s information system which would be compatible with the European form of reporting in the sphere of environmental protection.

The Committee members accepted the Report on the condition of the environment in the Republic of Serbia in 2010, concluding that it is a fundamental environmental protection document. The report provides a basic overview of the condition, it is real, comprehensive and important for the Government’s planning of the environmental policy and policy of sustainable development. The Environmental Protection Committee is aware of the economic difficulties Serbia faces at present in the conditions of the global economic and financial crisis, of the risk that the current priorities of sustaining economic parameters might jeopardize the efforts of the competent ministry, other state authorities and local self-government bodies on environmental protection, states the Committee’s conclusion.