Waste water purification a priority, Serbian minister says

Trivan told members of the European Union IMPEL environmental network that the construction of waste water processing capacities is a priority for his ministry, adding that investments of five billion Euros are required for those facilities.  

According to its web site, IMPEL (the EU Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law) is an international non-profit association of the environmental authorities of the European Union Member States, acceding and candidate countries of the EU, EEA and EFTA countries.  

He said the ministry does not have sufficient numbers of inspectors. “We are allowed to employ up to 180 people but that depends on the budget. We will first fill vacancies in the ministry with inspectors,” Trivan said.  

IMPEL Chairman Chris Dijkens said that Serbia needs to make an estimate of the number of people needed to implement EU regulations once they have been passed into national law as well as the number of inspectors.   He said the biggest environmental problem in Europe is failure to respect the law, adding that this inflicts damages of some 50 billion Euros a year.