Walking in the Mist - Coalition 27 Shadow Report 2020

The report “Walking in the Mist” is the seventh annual report by Coalition 27 on important developments and changes in the area of environmental protection and climate change in Serbia. This report covers the period March 2019 to the end of February 2020. The title of this year’s report reflects the view of Coalition 27 that decision-making processes in the field of environmental protection and climate change are still not sufficiently transparent. Coalition 27’s reports primarily address topics related to Serbia’s EU accession negotiations on Chapter 27 of the EU acquis, and follow the annual report of the European Commission. The novelty development during the reporting period has been the Serbian Government’s adoption of a negotiating position on Chapter 27 in January 2020 and its submission to the European Commission for review.

The report covers nine thematic areas: horizontal legislation, air quality, waste management, water quality, nature conservation, chemical management, noise and climate change. Given the fact that the forestry sector has a major impact on numerous areas of the environment (nature conservation, climate change, etc.), we have decided to also provide an overview of forestry in this report (as in previous reports). The report does not tackle civil protection issues or industrial pollution and risk management. Each thematic area reviews developments in public policy-making and legislation, the implementation of regulations and funding, and provides recommendations for the promotion of these processes. As in previous years, the general trends in financing in the field of environmental protection and climate change have been highlighted and analysed.