Fulfillment of European standards in environmental protection will be one of the key conditions for the admission of Montenegro to the European Union. It is one of the most difficult and expensive chapters, and in that sense, Montenegro has a big and difficult job ahead of it," says Ervin Spahić, acting director of the Environmental Protection Agency, in an interview with "Vijesti".
He says that Chapter 27, which deals with environmental protection, includes about 700 different regulations and makes up a third of all EU legislation.
"The negotiations from that chapter are considered one of the most demanding. Their completion requires a lot of time and even more money, which is necessary for the construction of new and maintenance of existing ecological infrastructure, the remediation of the consequences of pollution and degradation of natural resources, as well as for the establishment of new standards and mechanisms for preventing environmental threats", says Spahić.
If we want to enter the EU, we will have to completely change our environmental awareness. To know that everything we throw in the container is not useless garbage and that in the most developed countries only a part of it ends up in the landfill
"The following areas are of crucial importance: water quality, waste water management, industrial pollution, management of different types of waste, prevention of waste generation, waste selection and its economic valorization", says Spahić.
Although the EU financial resources, available in the pre-accession period, will make up only a small part of the total money needed for the environment, Spahić believes that money from the EU will still significantly contribute to the development of the administrative structure and capacity to attract future, significantly more significant financial resources within the EU funds, which will be available to us later.
"It is certainly good that so far a large number of laws in the field of the environment have been qualitatively harmonized with European directives and that the changes in the criminal legislation also consider endangering the environment as a criminal offense," explains Spahić.
If we want to enter the EU, we will have to completely change our environmental awareness. To know that everything we throw in the container is not useless garbage and that in the most developed countries only a part of it ends up in the landfill.
"Besides changing environmental awareness, harmonizing our legislation with European legislation and its application in the coming period, the main story will be sustainable development, which essentially means the preservation of natural ecosystems, the rational use of natural resources, and at the same time increasing the quality of life and improving the environment. The concept of sustainable development, namely the harmony of economic, technological, social and cultural development with environmental protection, represents a new development paradigm and philosophy of social life. This will be a serious task for us in the coming period," says Spahić.
Before that, Montenegro is waiting for very specific tasks to rehabilitate ecological black spots, with the support of the World Bank.
"The most pronounced ecological problem of Montenegro are the so-called 'black ecological spots'. These are KAP red mud basins and industrial waste disposal sites;; Adriatic shipyard Bijela industrial waste grit disposal plant, Thermal power plant Pljevlja ash and slag disposal site 'Maljevac' and flotation tailings pit Gradac mine 'Šuplja stijena' in Pljevlja. Based on the analysis, the location of KAP proved to be the most optimal solution for the construction of a national landfill for hazardous waste. There is already a hazardous waste dump there, which needs to be rehabilitated in order not to endanger the living and working environment, as well as the entire environment. It is up to the Government to decide on the eventual export of waste, of course if it is determined that it is a better and more profitable option," emphasizes Spahić.
No one has yet asked us for an assessment of the impact of the highway
The Environmental Protection Agency has not yet received a request for an environmental impact assessment of the construction of the SmokovacMateševo highway section, the possible start of which is announced by our Government for February 25.
"One assessment was done in 2008, but if construction starts, a new one would have to be done. We have not received such a request yet," says Spahić. Before starting the construction of a meter of the highway, an environmental impact assessment report must be prepared, which is a prerequisite for obtaining other permits for the start of construction.
Germany recycles half of its garbage
Spahić singles out Germany as the most advanced waste management system.
"Germany is one of the six EU countries, which solve the waste problem in the most efficient way possible by recycling. It recycles half of municipal waste, and the EU average is 25 percent. Germany hardly uses its landfills, and in the rest of Europe, on average, almost 40 percent of waste ends up in landfills. As far as our country is concerned, inadequate waste management is one of the biggest environmental protection problems," says Spahić.
The planet weighs four billion tons of waste annually
The growth of the planet's population and the increase in consumption means more waste on the entire planet.
"Some data indicate that more than four billion tons of industrial, municipal and hazardous waste are generated annually around the world," says Spahić. Even one of the smallest countries on the planet, Montenegro, has serious problems with both the amount and treatment of waste.
Spahić says that, according to the data of the Bureau of Statistics, in 2012 we "produced" almost 278 thousand tons of municipal waste.
"Taking into account the estimated data on the number of inhabitants in the middle of the year, in 2012, 1,23 kilograms of waste was collected per capita, which is six percent less compared to the previous year," explained Spahić.
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