ECOLOGY - FIRST STEP TOWARDS EU
22.01.2014

On the occasion of the final activities of the international project "Living Green", which Palilula Municipality Niš implemented in 2013, as a part of the CBC program Bulgaria-Serbia (IPA Cross-Border Programme), in partnership with the Bulgarian municipality IHTIMAN, there were a one-day event called Environment Day held at the Nis Cultural Centre.

On this occasion, the participants and organizers of the project were welcomed by Boban Džunić, president of Municipality of Palilula, in the presence of Atanas V.Krstin, Consul General Consulate General of the Republic of Bulgaria in Nis, and Kaloyan Iliev Angelov, President of the partner municipality of Ihtiman.

According to the president of Municipality of Palilula Boban Džunić, completion of this project was in a very important day for Serbia, a day when negotiations for membership in the European Union started, which Municipality of Palilula contributed significantly with its cooperation with Bulgaria, which is already in the EU. "With the help of the EU IPA funds, we made a number of projects, and one of those projects that we set out in our action plan and strategy untill 2016 is the "Living Green". It is very important for our community, because we recorded some 30 illegal dumps only during the last year. We know that a large number of them are reduced to a minimum. There's not one illegal dump in the “Crvena Zvezda", which means that we have made the first step and managed to change the mind of those people who have illegal dumps in front of their houses and in their surroundings. Our target groups are primarily young people, whose consciousness we can change, and then the young generation affected by the neighbors and parents. "It is important that we are not spending money from our budget, said the president Džunić and announced new projects in cooperation with Bulgaria over EU funds.

Cooperation with Bulgaria, except through such projects, can be very useful in the period in which there are negotiations between Serbia and EU, for membership in the European Union, said Consul General Consulate of the Republic of Bulgaria in Nis, Atanas Krstin. "We know that ecology is important fact in the process of negotiations and we would be glad that we can help Serbia on its path towards the European Union. In this sense, there is great importance of the cooperation between the municipalities of our two countries. We may transfer experience of negotiating and to point out the mistakes that we made, that you will not repeat them. Municipal cooperation in the future can and should be much better and more frequent, because there is a lot of potential for new projects, "said Krstin.

"I hope we change the perception of young people and told them to live green, to be mindful of protecting the environment, because, as you know, the ecology is one of the most important things in the development of a society. We know that our colleagues from Palilula had problems with illegal dumps that have burdened the city budget, and that money could be used for other purposes necessary to the community, "said Kaloyan Iliev, Mayor of Municipality of Ihtiman in Bulgaria and added that he had a good cooperation with municipality of Palilula, and expects that it will continue in the future. “We have encouraged collaboration and networking in the field of environmental protection and energy efficiency policies in education and business level in the region, introduced new forms of interactive modules, and best practices for joint capacity building in the field of environmental protection".