IMPEL National Peer Review Initiative (NPRI) Meeting in Belgrade, Serbia

A joint NPRI meeting with the participation of representatives of inspection organisations from the Republic of North Macedonia and Serbia was held in Belgrade on 12-14 December 2023. The meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Serbia. Sixteen participants attended the meeting, four representing the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Republic of North Macedonia and nine representing the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia. The meeting was also attended by two IMPEL NPRI project managers and the project consultant. 

Mr. Dejan Furjanovic, Assistant Minister at the Serbian Ministry of Environmental Protection, welcomed all participants and referred to the successful meeting held in Skopje, North Macedonia, in May 2023 where the foundations were laid for the implementation of a joint NPRI project by both countries. He underlined the importance of the project in view of the ambitions of both countries to further improve the implementation of inspection tasks. Serbia and North Macedonia are candidates for accession to the European Union. He expressed his expectation that the relevant organisations in both countries will greatly benefit from the results of this project, which will contribute to meeting EU requirements. 

Speaking on behalf of his organisation, the Director of the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Republic of North Macedonia, Mr. Sreten Stojkovski, explained that both inspection organisations face similar challenges in achieving more efficient performance of their assigned tasks. He therefore underlined the importance of the two countries working together in this NPRI project. There is much to learn from each other and from international best practices. This NPRI project provides an excellent platform to do so. 

Both organisations made presentations on the implementation of their tasks, the organizational embedding, and the challenges they face. The presentations also referred to the European Commission's progress report on EU accession. One of the issues mentioned was the need to strengthen implementation and enforcement. Participants then discussed a common theme for the implementation of the NPRI around this theme, including a review of laws and regulations and the current and necessary implementation of related monitoring and enforcement tasks. This "scoping" phase will now be continued by the organisations to arrive at a common theme in the short term, after internal coordination, which will then be implemented as the NPRI project in early 2024. 

For further information, please contact NPRI Project Managers.