Closing Conference of the eVOC Serbia project held

Due to their impact on human health and the environment, control of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions from various industrial and commercial installations is very important – this is one of the conclusions of the Closing Conference dedicated to the successful completion of the project “Implementation of European Regulation on Volatile Organic Compounds Emissions – eVOC Serbia”. The conference entitled “Current status and further steps towards the full implementation of Chapter V of the Directive on Industrial Emissions in Serbia” was held in Belgrade at the premises of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in Belgrade.

Over the past four years, the eVOC Serbia project was implemented at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy of the University of Belgrade with the support of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade, in order to achieve environmental protection standards and reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds in industrial installations in Serbia. The project provided support to competent authorities in the field of environmental protection, but also to industry representatives in Serbia, primarily to small and medium-sized enterprises that use volatile organic compounds in their production processes.

The conference was opened by Ms. Aleksandra Imširagić-Đurić, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and expressed her satisfaction with the cooperation with the Cleaner Production Centre of the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, which implemented this project, and emphasized that the project helped in the analysis of national legislation in this field and drafting a new VOC Regulation.

Mr. Stefan Almehagen Sandstad, First Secretary of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade, pointed out that the project represents an important initiative within cooperation between Norway and Serbia in the field of industrial pollution and expressed confidence that the efforts of the Cleaner Production Centre together with the institutions involved in the implementation of this Regulation have significantly contributed to the overall positive results of the project and supported Serbian operators in the implementation of this part of the EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).

Ms. Tamara Perunović Ćulić, Assistant Director of the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency, expressed her satisfaction with the results of the project and underlined its importance, since the Agency is one of the main beneficiaries of the project, as the project provided assistance and support for the creation of a part of the electronic system for registration and submission of reports by industry representatives which are classified as VOC operators.

In the continuation, the project team presented the most important results of the project in terms of technical and administrative support to the competent authorities and industry representatives, project activities in building capacities of the Sector for supervision and preventative action in the environment and the Department for air and ozone layer protection of the competent Ministry, as well as manuals, brochures, and videos-lessons that were created in order to improve knowledge in the field of reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds.

Agenda of the conference can be seen here.

You can view pictures from the conference here.