The Pančevo Action Program

The Pančevo Action Program, launched in October 2004 within the event “L’Italia a Belgrado 2004”, is a pilot integrated project promoted and financed by the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea, in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding “Cooperation on Environmental Protection” signed with the Serbian Ministry of Environmental Protection. The project implementation is coordinated by the CETMA Consortium, with the support of several qualified experts from public and private Italian entities, in close cooperation with the Serbian experts based in the Pančevo local office, opened in 2005 by the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea, and with the representatives of local and central Serbian authorities and of the main industries.

The main objectives of the project are a) the environmental governance and management in the public and private sector, b) the identification of the environmental risks and “hot spots” in the industrial and urban areas, c) the implementation and the compliance with the international environmental Conventions and Protocols, d) the promotion of the best available technologies in reducing the consumption of the natural and energy resources, in protecting the water and air quality, in managing the urban and hazardous wastes, e) the use of renewable energies through the innovative market mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol.

The Pančevo Action Program identifies a set of priority interventions covering 7 main sectors: a) air quality; b) water quality; c) waste management; d) soil and water remediation; e) environmental and risk monitoring; f) energy efficiency and renewable energies, g) training and capacity building.