The Bill was presented by the authorised representative of the submitter, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Head of the Department for Protected Areas, Geodiversity and Ecological Network Aleksandra Doslic.

The reason to pass the proposed amendments to the Law on Nature Conservation is the need to eliminate certain problems and shortcomings observed in the previous application of the Law, the obligation to harmonize it with the provisions of the Law on Planning System of the Republic of Serbia, as well as with the Law on Inspection Oversight. Also, the provisions of the Law which have been harmonized with EU regulations require specification and elimination of shortcomings observed in their previous application. Namely, the provisions related to the procedure of Assessment of acceptability for the ecological network, as well as the provisions on the ecological network, have been elaborated in more detail and more fully defined, which in turn defines one of the most important conservation processes – the process of establishing the ecological network of the Republic of Serbia i.e. ecological network of the European Union, NATURA 2000, in accordance with the requirements of Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora and Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds. Another reason for the proposed changes relates to the construction of small hydropower plants in protected areas.

Following the presentation and comprehensive discussion, the Committee members decided to propose that the National Assembly accept the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Nature Conservation, in principle.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Prof. Dr Ljubinko Rakonjac and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Samira Cosovic, Tomislav Jankovic, Marko Parezanovic, Vesna Krisanov, Mina Kitanovic, Gojko Palalic, Marija Todorovic, Jelena Obradovic, Dragana Radinovic, Aleksandar Jugovic, Zarko Bogatinovic and Dragan Markovic.