The status of the negotiating position was presented by State Secretary at the Ministry of Environmental Protection Ivan Karic and associates, who said he hoped the negotiating position for Chapter 27 would be ready in a year to year and a half. Karic said that the challenges the Negotiating Group for Chapter 27 has to deal with are the quality and availability of information, split or insufficiently well-defined scopes of activity, lack of strategic and legal framework and a stable system of financing for the field of environmental protection. In its 2018 report the European Commission suggested boosting the administrative and financial capacities of the Ministry of Environmental Protection by strengthening the Environmental Protection Agency, ensuring the operationalization of the Green Fund and securing the necessary funds for it.

The State Secretary’s assistants spoke about the activity plan of the Negotiating Group for Chapter 27, saying that they are in touch with the representatives of the European Commission and that they have had a series of meetings to discuss issues concerning chemicals and environmental protection, as well as climate change, so as to be able to draft the best possible negotiating position for Chapter 27.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Ivana Stojiljkovic, and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Radoslav Cokic, Borka Grubor, Milena Turk, Ivana Nikolic, Dr Desanka Repac, Prof. Dr Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic, Dusko Tarbuk and Dr Ljubinko Rakonjac, as well as by representatives of the network of NGOs who take part in the Committee’s work through the Green Chair mechanism.