Final report - IMPEL-TFS NCP Exchange Days 2011

Serbia is an EU candidate country and has been collaborating with
neighbouring and other EU countries since several years. One of the main
activities has been a Twinning project with Austrian authorities
‘Umweltbundesamt’. The title of the project was ‘Strengthening the
Serbian Environmental Inspection and Relevant Stakeholders’ and the
main goals were to improve the quality of the natural environment and
the health of the population through the effective enforcement of
environmental regulations and to improve the capacity and effectiveness
of the Serbian Environmental Inspection (EI) at republic, province and
local levels and improve cooperation with relevant stakeholders.
In Serbia controls on waste shipments are usually made by MEMSP
before issuing the permit, then controls can be made on the road, on the
cross border point, in the office and also by the Republic inspectors. The
Serbian authorities work closely together with the relevant partners such
as customs, the police, non governmental organizations, neighbouring
countries such as Romania and of course the IMPEL TFS network. The
inspectors have sufficient powers to take actions against any unwanted or
illegal waste shipments. To raise more awareness on waste shipments
several actors in the waste shipment and enforcement chain have been
educated. These actors are: public prosecutors and judges, customs
officers, waste shipment operators, local governments and non
governmental organizations.
One of the cases that were dealt
with in Serbia was a shipment of
used equipment for a bakery.
The equipment was not
complete and essential parts
were missing. There was too
much physical damage that
would impair its functionality or
safety. Also, the packaging for
protecting it from damage
during transport and loading and
unloading operations was insufficient and the further use of the
equipment was not certain. After investigation it also became clear that
the testing documents that were provided were false. The shipment was
considered to be an illegal waste shipment and was sent back to the
country of origin. The importer was sent to court.
3.3 Experiences Bulgaria
Mr. Martin Ganyushkin of the Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW)
in Bulgaria presented the results of a twinning project on waste
management in Bulgaria that took place in 2009-2010. Furthermore, the
experiences of inspections in Bulgaria were shared with the participants.
The main aim of the twinning project was to achieve integrating and
sustainable waste management through improvement and higher quality
IMPEL-TFS NCP Exchange Days FINAL Report
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28- 29 September 2011 – Berlin, Germany January 2012