Mr. Goran Trivan, Minister of Environmental Protection, Ms. Mateja Norčič Štamcar, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Mr. Nicolas Faye, Charge d’Affaires and First Counsellor, Embassy of France and Mr. Dušan Čarkić, Assistant Minister and Head of the Department for Contracting and Financing of EU Funded Programmes (CFCU), opened the Closing conference of the EU Twinning project „Establishment of a Mechanism for Implementation of Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (MMR)“.The project, which officially started on 15th May 2015, was implemented by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia, French Ministry of Ecological and Solidary Transition and the Interprofessional Technical Centre for Studies on Air Pollution (CITEPA). The two-and-a-half-year-long Twinning project was funded by the European Union and co-financed by the Republic of Serbia (1,2 million EUR total). The overall objective of the project was to assist the Republic of Serbia to transpose and implement the environmental and climate Acquis through institutional building and improvement of environmental reporting infrastructure, with a purpose to ensure the alignment with the EU climate Acquis and fulfilment of the UNFCCC requirements.

Moreover, the project contributed to the establishment of a system for collection of climate change related data and information on a continual basis. This system will allow Serbia to monitor climate actions and the current situation in regard to GHG emissions, emission reduction and vulnerability of sectors and preparedness for adaptation.   Therefore, one of the main outputs of the Twinning Project is the Draft Law on Climate Change, which includes the transposition of the Monitoring Mechanism Regulation (MMR), the Emission Trading System Directive (EU-ETS), (both accompanied by two implementing acts), as well as the Directive on the availability of consumer information on fuel economy and CO2 emissions of new passenger cars.

This legal framework will create a binding obligation for data collection and reporting to relevant national institutions by establishing National GHG Inventory System. It will also facilitate the monitoring of climate change related policies and measures, strategies and relevant sector actions by establishing a system for reporting policies, measures and projections of GHG, ensuring better strategic planning and adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change. Furthermore, the draft law is also establishing instruments for long-term policy making and planning through preparation of Low Carbon Development Strategy and its action plans, as well as plans for adaptation to climate change.  

Administrative and institutional capacities of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency were strengthened through a series of capacity building training sessions, thus creating a team of fifteen Serbian experts to fulfil the requirements of the EU climate change Acquis related to the MMR and EU-ETS. In the project implementation, including the preparation of the draft Law on Climate Change, а broad range of stakeholders was involved, including representatives of the governmental institutions, industry and civil society organisations.