Title: Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia
1Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
Development of the Ecoregister, a national
metaregister for environmental information in the
Republic of Serbia
Tina Janjatovic and Ivan Jaric
Geneva, December 2013
2Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Ministry of Energy, Development and
Environmental Protection of the Republic of
Serbia and the Environmental Protection Agency of
the Republic of Serbia, with the support of the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE), have implemented a project of the
development of the first National Metaregister
for Environmental Information.
- Project of the development of the first national
metaregister for environmental information lasted
for eight months, from May 2012 to January 2013.
3Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- A project implementation team was established,
consisted of four experts who worked in
cooperation with the representatives of the
Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection and the Environmental Protection
Agency on database design, development and data
gathering.
- Metaregister was given the name Ecoregister, to
make it more accessible to the general public.
4Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- During the Ecoregister designing and
development, non-governmental organizations
engaged within the field of environmental
protection have been timely consulted.
- A questionnaire was sent to over 100 NGOs with a
wide range of questions, such as those related to
the type of environmental information they need
during their work, as well as the types of
information they consider important to be
included in the Ecoregister.
5Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Ministry also organized a public discussion with
non-governmental sector representatives, where
they had an opportunity to become acquainted with
the Ecoregister development project, and to
present their views and opinions about the
planned contents of the database.
6Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Regarding the legal framework for the
Ecoregister establishment, Republic of Serbia has
ratified the Aarhus Convention on 12th May 2009,
which in the Article 5, paragraph 2, prescribes
the establishment of the register for
environmental information.
- In 2003, a Directive 2003/4/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003
on public access to environmental information was
adopted, which is harmonized with the Articles 4
and 5 of the Aarhus Convention.
7Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- The Article 3, paragraph 5 of this Directive,
prescribes the establishment of the registers or
lists of the environmental information held by
public authorities or information points, with
clear indications of where such information can
be found.
- Based on these regulations, a national Strategy
for the implementation of the Aarhus Convention,
adopted by the Government on 31st December 2011
(Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia,
No. 103/11), prescribed the establishment of a
national metadata register of environmental
information within the Measures related to the
establishment of the efficient information
system.
8Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Ecoregister was installed as a subdomain of the
Internet presentation of the Environmental
Protection Agency of the Republic of Serbia, on
the following web address www.ekoregistar.sepa.go
v.rs
9Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Ecoregister represents an electronic database
and a portal to the existing databases and
documents with environmental information that are
available on the Internet.
- Ecoregister comprises environmental information
that is kept and maintained by responsible
ministries, agencies, local governments,
protected area managers, as well as the available
data on the state of all segments of the
environment (air, water and soil pollution),
waste, pollution emitters, flora and fauna, etc.
10Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- The main aim of the Ecoregister establishment is
to provide quick, easy and simple public access
to environmental information, and to improve
general availability of such information for the
general public.
- The provisions regarding the establishment and
maintenance of the Ecoregister are incorporated
into the Law on Amendments to the Law on
Environmental Protection, which is in the
adoption procedure.
11Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Ecoregister contains two types of entries
Relevant institutions
Relevant documents
- ministries, agencies, departments, institutes,
museums, etc.
- cities, municipalities, public utility
companies, etc.
- protected area managers
- business entities
- non-governmental organizations
12Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- legal documents, strategic documents and plans
- databases, registries, information systems
- studies, reports, projects
- informational and educational documents
- Database developed both in Serbian and English
language
13Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Each document entry is characterized by several
parameters
- document name, publication year
- document type (study, legal document, report,
etc.)
- areas covered by the document (biodiveristy,
air, soil, water, pollution, energy sources, etc.)
- language (Serbian, English or other)
- Internet link (if available)
- responsible institution(s) with their contact
data
14Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- For the information that is not available
online, Ecoregister provides information about
institutions that are responsible for their
publishing and maintenance, with the contact data
of responsible persons in those institutions, and
the description of the application procedure for
the access to information.
15Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Five types of data search
16Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Five types of data search
17Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
18Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
19Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
20Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
21Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
22Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
23Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
Protected areas
Municipalities
Enterprises
Cities
24Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Other Ecoregister website contents
Key national institution that ensures free public
access to information
- description of the Commisioners
responsibilities and powers
- description of public free information access
rights, and procedures for filing complaints in
case of a refusal to grant access to information
- download links for official forms for making
access to information requests and for filing
complaints
- download of relevant legal documents and
informational material
25Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Currently, Ecoregister contains entries for over
700 institutions and more than 4000 documents.
- Ecoregister fully operational since December 2012
- Significant number of visitors during the last
year, but efforts are currently made to further
improve its visibility
26Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
- Major weakness of any database is the constant
need for data updating
- Ongoing project for Ecoregister updating, funded
by OSCE
- Beside contacting all relevant institutions to
check for updates and corrections, and extensive
Internet search, a new system for automatic data
updating is currently being developed
27Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental
Protection of the Republic of Serbia
Thank you for your attention!
www.ekoregistar.sepa.gov.rs