New Law on Air Protection adopted - Harsher penal policy

The National Assembly adopted the Law on Air Protection, an umbrella document based on which important innovations in this area will be introduced, with the aim of more effective air protection, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The Minister of Environmental Protection Sara Pavkov stated that this document has not been changed since 2009, and now the new solutions are aligned with the EU regulations.

- With the adoption of the Law on Air Protection, we have made a significant step forward in this area. After many years of application of the previous law and the adoption of other regulations, we noticed the need to augment the Law, in order to improve this important area and harmonize it with European legislation. Some of the changes are the professionalization of the special purpose measurement process, the fact that a clear distinction has been made between data and information, greater transparency through more comprehensive consultations, and greater public participation in the procedures for adopting short-term air quality action plans. What is perhaps the most important thing for citizens, the new law expands and harshens the penal policy, specifies the deadlines in which the competent authorities are obliged to inform the public of the results of measuring polluting substances, and the obligations are specified and the competence of inspectors is regulated in more detail, which enables a better application of the law - said Pavkov.

The minister pointed out that the new law created a normative framework for more effective application of air protection measures in practice.

- The positive contribution is that we have now made it possible to implement the internationally accepted obligations of the Republic of Serbia in the field of air protection and the ozone layer, in a responsible manner. Also, it is important that we arrived at this regulation through a months-long transparent process of public discussion, including the current session of the Assembly of Serbia. During the process of drafting the law, the scientific and professional public, as well as the civil sector, were involved. While the new solutions were still in the draft stage, more than 500 proposals for improvement were received, all of which were relevant and adopted. The next step is to put the new solutions that have been adopted into practice as soon as possible, because they will contribute to the improvement of quality and more effective air protection in our country, which is one of the most important priorities of the Ministry I lead - said Pavkov.

Narodna skupština Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije

National Assembly

Ministry of Enviromental Protection

Sara Pavkov

Law on air protection