Associations Express Serious Concern Over Insufficient Transparency and Limited Public and Expert Participation in the Process of Drafting the New Air Protection Law.Despite its significance for the health and quality of life of the citizens of Serbia, the law-making process has not been conducted in accordance with applicable regulations, and the proposed amendments do not address key issues related to air quality monitoring, timely response to incidents, oversight, and the sanctioning of polluters.

Disregard for Minimum Standards of Public Participation

The public discussion on the Draft Law, which began on January 15, 2025, was organized with only minimal adherence to public participation standards. Given the severity of the air pollution problem in Serbia, we believe that a 20-day period is insufficient for a comprehensive analysis and discussion of the proposed solutions, and that organizing only one hybrid public presentation in Belgrade is inadequate. According to the latest report on the state of air quality in Serbia, prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency, the air is excessively polluted in more than 20 cities and municipalities across Serbia, yet the presentation was organized only in Belgrade.

Irregularities in the Process

The process of drafting the law began in February 2024, and only two civil society organizations were included in the working group for its development, chosen through a call for proposals with conditions that precluded certain associations with proven expertise and long-standing contributions to the fight for clean air. In this way, even in the initial stages of lawmaking, the interested public was effectively excluded from the process.

Additional confusion was caused by the early public review, which was conducted only for a portion of the Draft Law in November 2024. It has never happened before that consultations were held on only part of the law, while public review is typically applied solely to spatial and urban planning documents. The consultation process, as envisioned in the preparation of such an important regulation, was carried out contrary to regulations, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection did not prepare a regulatory impact analysis, while the foundational documents lacked the minimum elements required by law. It was necessary to identify and explain the problems that led to the current situation in order to draw appropriate conclusions from such an analysis, which would then inform legal solutions aimed at resolving the issues. The analysis attached to the Draft Law fails to identify the causes of the problems and only superficially explains the consequences, without establishing causal relationships.

Key Issues That Remain Unresolved

Despite the new legal framework, some of the most critical issues in air protection remain unresolved:

1. Local Air Quality Monitoring

   The proposed Draft Law still allows local governments to establish monitoring networks independently, based on their own capabilities, meaning there will be no mandatory, comprehensive, and continuous monitoring of all air pollutants.

2. Special Purpose Measurements in Emergency Situations

   The new law proposes a five-day period for authorities to decide whether to initiate special purpose measurements in cases of environmental incidents, such as landfill fires, unnecessarily complicating the decision-making process. In practice, this means that measurements may only be conducted after the source of pollution is eliminated, by which time pollutant concentrations will have already returned to permissible levels.

3. National Emission Reduction Plan

   The proposal includes the removal of provisions defining this key instrument for reducing pollution from thermal power plants. This is particularly problematic considering that thermal power plants of "Elektroprivreda Srbije" have been emitting four to six times more sulfur dioxide than allowed for the past seven years, endangering public health.

4. Supervision and Penal Provisions of the Law

   The opportunity to grant broader powers to the inspection authorities, enabling them to act effectively and preventively, has been missed. In practice, inspections often fail to carry out activities, citing lack of authority to act in accordance with the Air Protection Law. Similarly, the proposed punitive mechanisms, which should involve stricter penalties for polluters, do not provide sanctions for every violation of obligations by operators, and even less so for responsible individuals in government bodies. This means that a large number of obligations for operators and competent authorities will be reduced to their "goodwill," as there are no sanctions for non-compliance.

5. The Disengaged Public

   While the provisions of the previous law, in addition to defining the concept of "interested public," did not outline specific rights and obligations, it is unjustifiable to remove this term from the new law. On the contrary, it is necessary to ensure that the rights to access justice and participation in decision-making processes are guaranteed to the interested public, as done in the new EU Air Quality Directive.

Citizens Deserve a Better Law

The citizens of Serbia need a law that effectively addresses air pollution problems, not a law that merely meets formal requirements for alignment with EU legislation. The European Union adopted a new Air Quality Directive in 2024, while the Ministry of Environmental Protection is only now presenting a new law to the public, which only partially ensures compliance with the 2008 Directive. Data on pollution and its effects on human health speak volumes about what has been achieved over the past 16 years.

Signatory Organizations:

Belgrade Open School, Belgrade

Regulatory Institute for Renewable Energy and the Environment, Belgrade

Society of Young Researchers, Bor

New Path, Kraljevo

Local Response, Valjevo

Team 42, Leskovac

Alternative for Safer Chemicals (ALHem), Belgrade

Center for Environmental Improvement, Belgrade

Center for Modern Skills, Belgrade

Center for Green Politics, Belgrade

Environmental Protection Engineers, Novi Sad

Ministry of Space, Belgrade

Young Researchers of Serbia, Belgrade

National Ecological Association, Belgrade

New Planning Practice, Belgrade

Kraljevo Development Center, Kraljevo

Regional Association of Private Forest Owners "Omorika," Priboj

RES Foundation, Belgrade

Green Wave, Čačak

WWF Adria – Serbia, Belgrade

Pro. Tok21, Smederevo

iRevolution, Valjevo