Serbian Environmental Protection Agency

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Serbian Environmental Protection Agency
SEPA AND EEA, FIVE YEARS OF COOPERATION
Dejan Lekic EEA NFP Serbia Serbian Environmental
Protection Agency
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SEPA Who we are?

• Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)
  was founded by the Law on Ministries in 2004 as a
  specific organization within the Ministry of
  environmental protection and it became
  operational in November 2004.
• Main mission of SPEA is to ensure the
  availability of reliable data and information on
  the state of the environment, essential for
  effective environmental policy realization.
• SEPA has been established as a result of a need
  to have an organization that will focus on
  gathering environmental data and development of
  the National Information System for environmental
  protection.
• Integrating the work of all the scientific,
  professional and educational institutions,
  cooperating with international bodies, SEPA
  provides a central point for data and information
  access and dissemination.

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Previous Experience - CARDS

• SEPA also continued focusing its efforts on the
  establishment of the National Automatic Air
  Quality Monitoring Network (funded from EU CARDS
  project). Until now, national budget contributed
  to this system by establishing 9 automatic air
  quality monitoring stations.
• Set of 28 automatic stations (together with one
  mobile automatic station), provided through the
  support of EU, will be installed during 2009,
  covering the whole territory of Republic of
  Serbia.
• Establishment of the National Reference Air
  Quality Laboratory (funded by EU CARDS and
  Serbian Environmental Fund) is ongoing and its
  equipment will be installed till the end of 2009.
  
• The whole system, consisting of automatic air
  quality monitoring network and national reference
  laboratory will lead to the creation of an
  integrated air quality control, monitoring and
  analysis as well as to the implementation of EU
  methodologies and standards in this field.

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Cooperation with ???

• SEPA has been also seen as a key national
  institution for communication and cooperation
  with relevant bodies of European Union (EU),
  namely a National Focal organization for
  collaboration with European Environment Agency
  (EEA).
• Contribution to the European wide EIONET
  (Information and Observation network) data and
  information collecting and reporting system.
• In 2004, SEPA started active collaboration with
  EEA in providing first data on air and water
  quality, trying to organize data collection
  procedures at the national level, reaching very
  modest reporting level in reporting towards EEA
  within priority data flows of only 17 (together
  with Montenegro).

Serbian Reporting Score and trend 2004-2009

• During the year 2008/2009 SEPA increased its
  reporting towards EEA in both quantitative and
  qualitative way and according to the EEA score
  Serbian level of reporting reached 78, a
  significant improvement from previous years.

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Cooperation with ???
Evaluation of the deliveries from Serbia
(2008-2009)
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New activities SOER 2010

• For the first time Serbia is involved, together
  with other WB countries, into the European State
  of Environment Report 2010 (SOER 2010)
• Each country will contribute in three themes
• Diversity
• Commonality
• Flexibility
• Serbia delivered all the requested documents
  within proposed timeline

Serbian deliveries at the SOER Web site
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SEPA EEA - IPA 2008
IPA 2008 - "Assistance to Serbian Environment
Protection Agency as National focal point
institution for cooperation with European
Environment Agency in strengthening the EIONET
in Serbia" (1.6 mil. )

• The global objective is to increase the capacity
  of the SEPA and its data monitoring providers to
  carry out the monitoring and reporting
  responsibilities by supporting the Republic of
  Serbia in honoring its domestic and international
  environmental protection obligations.

• The specific objective is to design and help
  establish a fully functional National
  Environmental Information Network (National
  EIONET) that will improve (operational) reporting
  towards the EEA and other relevant institutions.

Serbian National EIONET Scheme
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International Cooperation Projects Near Future

• IPA 2009 - "Assistance to the Serbian
  Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) in the
  development and management of the Serbian
  National Environmental Information System (SNEIS)
  as a component of the European Shared
  Environmental Information System"
• "Establishment of the Environmental Management
  Center" (bilateral support from Norway)
• "Extension of the participation of the WB
  countries in the activities of EEA " (??? and EC
  support through IPA)
• "Strengthening Administrative Capacities for
  Implementation of Air Quality Management System"
  (IPA 2007)

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Serbia Progress Reports

• Serbia Progress Report 2007 "... The
  Environmental Protection Agency continued to
  carry out a number of tasks particularly in the
  areas of data collection and cooperation with the
  European Environment Agency. An integrated
  cadastre of polluters in Serbia has also been
  developed. However, the Agency lacks the
  necessary capacity to fully implement the
  integrated monitoring strategy."
• Serbia Progress Report 2008 "... The
  Environmental Protection Agency is fulfilling its
  tasks in the areas of data collection and
  cooperation with the European Environment Agency.
  Its performance is improving, but the Agency
  still lacks the capacity to ensure proper
  implementation of the integrated monitoring
  strategy."
• Serbia Progress Report 2009 "... The Serbian
  Environmental Protection Agency has maintained a
  good level of cooperation with the European
  Environment Agency on the European environment
  information and observation network.""... The
  Environmental Protection Agency remains fully
  operational and its performance is improving.
  However, it still lacks the capacity to ensure
  proper implementation of the integrated
  monitoring strategy."

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Where do we go? Where IPA can help?

• Creation of the National Reference Centers for
  each particular environmental theme according to
  the EEA methodology
• Establishment of the National Environmental
  Indicators as a superset of EEA Indicators
• Creation and Implementation of the Integrated
  Monitoring Strategy
• Design and Creation of the National Shared
  Environmental Information System
• Fulfillment of all the international reporting
  obligations, reaching 100 score in EEA priority
  data flow reporting.
• Full EEA membership including active engagement
  in all the EEA projects and activities.

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Where IPA can help?

• We waited ten years to start the cooperation...
• We then waited almost ten years to start
  implementing European methodologies and
  practices...

Help us to get involved in all activities right
NOW!
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SEPA AND EEA, FIVE YEARS OF COOPERATION
Thank you for your attention
Dejan Lekic EEA NFP Serbia