Capacity Building to Put the Aarhus Convention into Action and Support Development of PRTR Systems in South and Eastern European Countries

Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) together with Ministry of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning organized one-day training for SCO representatives on implementation of Aarhus convention in Serbia. The training was held in Belgrade, on December 21, 2011.

The training was held in the framework of the project “Capacity Building to Put the Aarhus Convention into Action and Support Development of PRTR Systems in South and Eastern European Countries“, funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and by the German Federal Environment Agency with means of the Advisory Assistance Programme for Environmental Protection in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The objectives of the training were:
• to acquaint NGOs with the rights and opportunities under the Aarhus Convention access to justice provisions;
• to provide knowledge to  participants on the access to justice situation in Serbia, including major difficulties, gaps, needs and barriers to justice as well as the solutions to remove  or reduce them; 
• to exchange experience and give insight into how access to justice works in EU and other countries;
• to build the skills and practical knowledge of  participants on the use of different access to justice mechanisms through analyzing different examples/cases and discussing strategies and methods for using to administrative and court procedures.