Saša Dragin announced founding of municipal funds for environment protection

Ministry of Environment Protection and Permanent Conference of Cities and Municipalities (SKGO) signed the Agreement on cooperation today (November 14, 2007) with German Organization of Technical Assistance (GTZ), which should contribute to improvement of collaboration between republic and local authorities in field of environment protection in Serbia.

Minister of Environment Protection, Saša Dragin, said after he signed the agreement in the premises of the Government of Serbia that GTZ should help municipalities in Serbia to reinforce capacities in field of environment protection, especially communal waste and communal wastewater management.

Dragin announced that the changes in Law on environment protection stipulated founding of municipal funds for that purpose, as well as that the Ministry would be giving consent every year for the program of that fund, so that wasting of funds could be avoided.

Manager of GTZ in Serbia, Uve Schtumf, has reminded that that organization financed more than 50 local environment protection projects in Serbia last year, especially water treatment and waste disposal projects.

Role of GTZ is to help in application of European experience and solutions to the environment protection problems in Serbia, as well as to improve cooperation between the Ministry and local communities for the sake of satisfaction of criteria for admission of Serbia into European Union.