The EU-Western Balkans Summit must not be greeted with a landfill next to the airport

The Ambassador of the European Union to Montenegro Johan Satler, the Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Development Damjan Ćulafić, the Mayor of the Municipality of Tivat Željko Komnenović and representatives of the NGO sector led by environmental activist Vuk Vujisić today, as part of the campaign "Take care so that it will take care of you", visited the route of the local road to the Topliš water source in Tivat and participated in the removal of illegal garbage dumps that unscrupulous individuals have created along that road.

This is one of the numerous environmental cleanup activities organized today in the municipalities of Herceg Novi, Kotor and Tivat by the EU Delegation to Montenegro, the Ministry of Ecology, the Eco-Fund and several NGOs.

"The 'Protect and Let It Protect You' campaign is primarily aimed at cleaning the belt along the road routes in Montenegro, and we have placed a great focus on Tivat, because in less than two months this city will host literally the whole of Europe, because all European leaders will come here for the EU-Western Balkans summit being held in Montenegro. I am extremely pleased that we have the support of numerous circles in this and that we have created a kind of 'Coalition of the Willing' around this, consisting of representatives of civil society and environmental activists such as Vuk Vujisić - a well-known fighter for nature protection, the children's environmental movement 'Angry Chamomile', local schools and representatives of local institutions - primarily the Municipality of Tivat and the relevant ministry in the Government of Montenegro," said EU Ambassador to Montenegro Johan Sattler, addressing the media.

He especially thanked the representatives of the Police Directorate, who were also in the field near Topliš today, emphasizing that "this campaign will only be successful if it is supported by the forces of law and order, that is, if those responsible for creating illegal landfills such as the one we are removing today are effectively found and punished."

Satler particularly praised the move of the Director of the Police Directorate of Montenegro, Lazar Šćepanović, who, as he said, formed a special department within the Directorate to combat environmental crime.

"The most important thing, however, is that we have the support of the vast majority of all citizens of Montenegro for the fight against environmental crime and for environmental protection, and this is finally the right way to achieve in practice what you have written in your Constitution - for Montenegro to truly be an ecological state," said the European diplomat.

Sattler's arrival in Tivat and the upcoming EU-Western Balkans Summit, which will be the largest international event ever organized in Montenegro, have finally, at least at the level of agreements and expressed commitments of all stakeholders, begun to eliminate the "noise in communication" between central and local authorities and various services that should be responsible for environmental preservation and waste management at the strategic and operational level.

Namely, the absolute priority has been given to removing the current temporary landfill of municipal and bulky waste from the former Monteprenzo agricultural estate across from Tivat airport, where almost all European leaders will land at the beginning of June. Therefore, it is unacceptable, as has been heard, that the pile of garbage right next to the airport and the uncleaned road belts to Luštica Bay, Porto Montenegro and other places where smait will be held should be the first thing that greets its participants.

This was also pointed out by the Mayor of the Municipality Željko Komnenović, reminding that Tivat has had a problem with non-compliance with state and local waste management plans for more than a year, namely blocking access to the Tivat Municipal Company to the Lovanja reloading station, which was built with EU funds for the needs of Tivat and Kotor, which has caused a problem with the temporary accumulation of waste at Montepranzo.

"We talked about it today and I hope that we are on the right track to eliminating the landfill in Montepranzo, for which the Municipal Company has already spent around 100.000 euros for waste removal in the past period, and the Municipality of Tivat is currently finalizing a new such tender worth 200.000 euros. We have finally reached an agreement with the Municipality of Kotor on the reuse of the joint transfer station in Lovanja," said Komnenović, adding that Tivat intends to resolve all local ecological black spots in the same way that it successfully closed and recultivated the old garbage dump in Grabovac a few years ago, where it is planned to build a Center for Olive Growing and Mediterranean Cultures in the coming period.

"The fight for ecology is a fight for all of us, and I truly insist that we systematically solve our problems in this domain - primarily by timely adoption and adoption of adequate spatial planning documentation and cooperation between local and central authorities, because this is the only and right way to solve all the ecological problems we have in Boka in a civilized way," he concluded.

Environmental activist Vuk Vujisić said that today, road cleaning campaigns were carried out in the area of ​​three Boka municipalities and the campaign to remove old car tires began.

"Today we received promises from the authorities that border crossings will be fixed, as well as road routes - especially the one towards Luštica, and that we will fix and eliminate the landfill located across from Tivat Airport. It is truly unbecoming of an ecological country to have a landfill across from the main air and tourist gateway to the southern part of Montenegro, and we need to prove that we are not only ecological, but also a country that truly wants to join the EU in terms of environmental protection and a responsible attitude towards space," said Vujisić.

Minister of Ecology Damjan Ćulafić emphasized that he had the opportunity to discuss ecological and environmental protection problems on site with citizens, the civil sector, and representatives of local governments of the three Boka municipalities.

"Given that local governments will continue to be the main drivers of activities in the field of closing Chapter 27, but also in the field of implementing European standards, we have indeed seen positive impulses in that direction today. Of course, there are still many problems ahead of us, but this cooperation between central and local authorities will yield results, just as our joint action 'Protect so that it protects you' is yielding concrete results on the ground," said Ćulafić.