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 On 10 December 2008, PILI helped organize a meeting in Pančevo to raise awareness about the creation of ECOLEX, the first nongovernmental organization in Serbia to engage in public advocacy and strategic representation on environmental issues before domestic and international courts and institutions. NGO representatives from throughout Serbia, representatives of government agencies at the local, provincial and federal levels, and lawyers from Pančevo gathered to exchange ideas about developing ECOLEX's activities.
The 1990s brought about an erosion of community social values in Serbia; environmental issues became the lowest priority for ordinary people struggling to make ends meet. After the democratic change of government, the issue of environmental protection in Serbia became marginalized in public and official discourse. In some areas of the country, the issue of clean air and water is more urgent than many of society's official priorities, and it is here that critical masses of people are fighting for environmental protection. The residents of Pančevo, who have suffered from chemical pollution for decades, are one example.
During the NATO bombing of Pančevo's Hemijska Industrija chemical plant, pollution turned into an environmental disaster. Worn-out equipment was never replaced, and the situation intensified after production at the plant resumed. Ecological incidents in Pančevo  have become increasingly frequent. The citizens of Pančevo have organized and filed criminal complaints against those responsible at the Hemijska Industrija chemical plant. Unfortunately, none of the complaints have been processed so far; likewise, some 300 civil suits are still pending. Citizens have organized themselves to try and solve local environmental problems in other towns. However, activities aimed at mobilizing large numbers of people, such as peaceful protests against environmental pollution, are generally without effect.
Moreover, Serbia lacks modern environmental protection laws. Although there are hundreds of NGOs in Serbia concerned with environmental protection, none are engaged in strategic representation before domestic and foreign institutions, which is precisely what the country's ecology movement needs. A group of lawyers from Pančevo, joined by colleagues from Zrenjanin, Novi Sad, and Kruševac, decided to set up ECOLEX to fill this gap.
ECOLEX is a non-profit NGO seeking to promote the right to a healthy environment at both the local and national levels. Its activities include public advocacy of the public interest in the field of ecology, research and preparation of reports concerned with environmental law, and keeping the public informed about environmental protection issues. It also provides environmental education mainly for NGOs and others interested in the subject, and provides legal services to NGOs and members of thep ublic in the field of environmental law and strategic litigation.
The meeting in Pančevo in December laid the groundwork for ECOLEX's activities. The first panel featured representatives from Serbian NGOs and other institutions involved with environmental protection in Serbia. Speakers included representatives of two highly influential local NGOs, Environmental Ambassadors and the Green Network of Vojvodina, and the coordinator of the Law Clinic for Environmental Protection, Novi Sad Faculty of Law, University of Novi Sad.
Participants benefited greatly from experience presented by representatives from other national contexts as well. The second panel featured environmental experts from organizations active in strategic litigation in Hungary and the United States, including presentations by attorney Zsuzsanna Berki of the Environmental Management Legal Association (EMLA) in Hungary and by Columbia law professor Ed Lloyd on the work of his legal clinic and the Eastern Environmental Law Center in New Jersey, USA. They shared decades of experience working with similar environmental advocacy organizations. Finally, the founder of ECOLEX, Miodrag Skundric, presented the vision for the organization, including its structure, program areas, planned activities and budget.
The meeting helped pave the way for the work of ECOLEX, whose activities will span assistance to individuals, NGOs, university law students, and the law profession in Serbia. ECOLEX will provide public advocacy assistance to other NGOs focused on environmental protection in Serbia, for example, providing NGOs with legal services currently unavailable to them, and it will provide citizens with professional legal assistance as well. Drawing on PILI's experience in setting up university law clinics focused on practice-oriented legal education, law students at the Environmental Law Clinic at the Novi Sad Faculty of Law will work with ECOLEX - which will simultaneously further the organization's goals as well as enable students to gain practical, firsthand experience in the field of environmental protection.
The new organization will seek to popularize environmental protection within the legal profession in Serbia. Finally, as an expert organization, ECOLEX will extend consulting services to government agencies and bodies, provide monitoring reports on the implementation of domestic and international ecology standards, and provide to state institutions indicators for the direction in which to develop legislation on environmental protection in order to make it more functional and effective.
To read the full meeting report, click here.
For more information about the work of ECOLEX and PILI's other work in Serbia, contact Marijana Obradovic (mobradovic[at]pili.org.)
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