TRIVAN: Serbia lags behind developed countries in environmental protection by 25 years

Serbian Minister of Environmental Protection Goran Trivan said yesterday that Serbia lagged behind developed countries in this field by 25 years.

During his conversation with the director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Serbia and the Western Balkans region, Zuzana Hargitai, Trivan said that other countries had faced similar problems before, but that they had got closer to the EU thanks to the EBRD's help.

– The cooperation with the EBRD has been great all these years and the EBRD is a partner which will strongly support all our priority efforts, from waste waters, municipal waste, to Vinca, which has in a way become a paradigm of fighting for a healthy environment and our cooperation with the EBRD – Trivan said, as announced by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Hargitai said that the EBRD would put a third of the total funds planned for various projects in Serbia in investments in green economy.

She added that the Green Cities program, which provides support to cities in solving systemic problems, such as air quality, energy efficiency, municipal waste and water processing, would expand through Belgrade to other cities in Serbia as well.

Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije

EBRD Evropska banka za obnovu i razvoj Beograd

Goran Trivan

EBRD

Zuzana Hargitai

Vinca

Green Cities