On 18.12.2020 CED Florozon organized the Final National Conference “Perspectives and opportunities for effective environmental justice”. The conference was a successful finish of the EU-funded “Equal Access to Effective Justice” project through the grant scheme "Strengthening the Impact of Civil Society on Effective Legal Sector Reform" EuropeAid/159467/ID/ACT/MK. The project’s main objective was to contribute to the creation of an independent, impartial, efficient, quality and transparent judiciary, responsible for the protection of individual rights and freedoms of citizens, thereby enabling appropriate protection of the public interest. The conference was addressed by eminent representatives from the Environmental Management and Law Association, the EU Delegation, the Academy of Judges and Public Prosecutors, the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, Ministry of Justice, the State Environmental Inspectorate, Institute of Public Health, representatives of municipalities from RN Macedonia, university professors, journalists, citizens and CSOs.
Through the fruitful debate, several important conclusions were defined for integrating environmental justice:
Through the fruitful debate, several important conclusions were defined for integrating environmental justice:
- It is necessary for judges and public prosecutors to be acquainted and trained in methodology for the approach in resolving environmental cases, which can be very complex and penetrate the natural sciences, for the proper setting of the indictment and the verdict;
- Increasing the awareness of the citizens for the existing opportunities for access to environmental justice through a systematized approach with greater involvement of several stakeholders;
- Proactivity of public prosecutors on these issues;
- Judges and public prosecutors face a lack of necessary skills in dealing with environmental cases;
- One of the ways to overcome the challenges faced by the MoEPP in exercising environmental rights among citizens is by implementing digital tools for more efficient exchange of information, which should be established in several relevant institutions operating in the field of environment;
- It is necessary to educate and raise awareness among citizens about their rights and obligations for the environment;
- Strengthening the capacities (human and financial) of the competent institutions (at central and local level);
- More competently integration of environmental policies into other sectorial policies is needed;
- It is necessary to work on greater coordination of the competent authorities in the implementation of the right to a healthy environment;
- It is necessary to raise the awareness of citizens that the protection of environment is a duty of every individual, not just a right;
- The SEI encourages local inspectors to be more active on field;
- Coordination between state and local environmental inspectors needs to be improved;
- It is necessary to detect all installations that can not establish environmentally friendly technologies and to prevent their further operation. In industry, plants must be audited to detect their condition and respond according to the findings (either to install appropriate purification filters or to shut them down);
- Revision of environmental permits and reports is also required;
- The transition to a green future cannot be achieved without a green economy;
- There is a good legal framework for exercising the right to a healthy environment. What is needed is raising awareness among all stakeholders and citizens;
- Necessary training for experts, specialization of judges and public prosecutors;
- There is a need for better coordination of the authorities, but also of the civil society sector, all in order to achieve common goals for ensuring a healthy and clean environment;