Local Financies and the Environment

Serbia is facing serious challenges in the field of environmental protection and harmonizing its standards with those of the European Union. To overcome these challenges, it is necessary to spend at least 10 billion euros.

Currently, Serbia spends less than 0.5% of its GDP on environmental protection, which is below the average sum allocated in the EU and far less than the amount allocated by the countries of Central and Eastern Europe during their accession process. Before the share of share of GDP allocated for environmental protection increases, it is important to have a quality system of planning and utilization of funds designated for environmental protection.

This policy brief provides an overview of the current situation in terms of financing environmental protection at the local level and recommendations for overcoming the identified issues. The brief is based on the policy research in which official documents and information from state institutions and (145) local self-governments, as well as responses to questionnaires sent by the officers from (92) local self-governments and representatives (97) of environmental civil society organizations were analysed.