Announcement of Publication “Challenging Democracy – Public Participation in Environmental Making” and Green Forum in Belgrade
On Thursday, 27th of February 2014, at 16:30 h, in “Parobrod”, in Belgrade, the presentation of publication named “Challenging Democracy – Public Participation in Environmental Making”, as well as Green Forum were organized.
On the pressentation of publication Katarina Golubovic from Lawyers Committe for Human Rights - YUCOm, Zeljka Leljak Gracin from Green Action Zagreb and Stanojla Mandic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Deputy. The speakers have emphasized the significance of presented publication which contains useful practices and experiences on informing and public participation in creating and implementing environmental policies. This event was moderated by Mirko Popovic, Coordinator of Centre for European Integration of Belgrade Open School.
After a short coffee break, Green Forum was organized. This event was moderated by Mirko Popovic, as well. Sreten Djordjevic, long-year experienced attorney on environmental cases, Ksenija Petovar, professor at Faculty of Architecture of University of Belgrade and Aleksandar Kovacevic, energy adviser at The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies were the main speakers at this event. These speakers were speaking about environmental issue in Republic of Serbia from legal, social and economic point of view in Republic of Serbia, as well as about the modalities for overcomming future challenges on this issue. After the Forum was officially closed, the discussion was organized.
These events were participated by civil society organizations representatives, experts, representatives of Ministry for Energy, Development and Environmental Protection of Government of Republic of Serbia and local self-government units. These events were final activities of “ConSENSus – Partnership Approach in Environmental Decision Making Process” project. This project is being realized by Belgrade Open School, UNECOOP from Paracin, Aarhus Centre from Kragujevac and Energy Efficiency Centre – “CEFIX” from Vrsac.
The above stated publication is a product of project consortium and its associates work on researching issue, such as public participation in creating and implementing environmental policy. The publication is also presenting the best practices of certain countries in public involvement in environmental policy making and implementation.
On the other side, Green Forum represents an invitation for further discussion on future relations between public authorities, civil society, academic community, enterprises and interested public in the environmental policy making process. Therefore, Green Forum will be attended by the representatives of all these sectors.
The “ConSENSus – Partnership Approach in Environmental Decision Making Process” project is being implemented within “SENSE” Program, conducted by Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe. This Program is financed by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.