23 February 2011 23.02.2011 - In the premises of the Information and Culture Center of the European Union in Kosovo, yesterday the first official meeting for the launch of the twinning project "Support for the Environmental Sector in Kosovo," financed by the European Union, was held. At the opening of the meeting, the Executive Director of AMMK, Dr. Sci. Ilir Morina, emphasized, among other things, that we hope this project will be a concrete assistance primarily in the institutional strengthening of the MMPH through capacity building, but also in the process of European integration and in deepening cooperation with the European Environment Agency and with the Environmental Agencies of EU member states, the implementers of the project.
Also present at the official opening of this meeting were the ambassador of the Austrian Embassy, Mr. Johann Brieger, the ambassador of the Finnish Embassy, Ms. Tarja Fernandez, Mr. Gordon McInnes, Deputy Director of the European Environment Agency, Mr. Georg Reberning, Executive Director of the Austrian Environment Agency, Mr. Melvin Asin from the European Commission Liaison Office in Kosovo, representatives from the Austrian Environment Agency, from the Meteorological Institute of Finland, and from the Center for Environment, Geology, and Meteorology from Latvia and from the twinning project, representatives from the Ministry of Environment of Macedonia and the Environment and Forest Agency of Albania as well as other representatives from Kosovo institutions who will benefit from the project.
The beneficiary of the project is the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA), while the project is being implemented by the Austrian Environment Agency, in cooperation with experts from the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Center for Environment, Geology and Meteorology of Latvia. These three countries have already gone through the EU accession process and have successfully implemented similar Twinning projects in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency expects this project to prepare Kosovo's path for EU accession regarding environmental management issues. The project has a duration of 22 months, with a budget of 1.0 million financed by the EU and 0.1 million co-financed by the Kosovo State Budget. The key objectives of the project are: the consolidation of administrative capacities in the KEPA and relevant departments in the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning, and Infrastructure (MESP) in legal matters, inst
Functional and technical environmental monitoring, with a particular focus on air and water, meeting at least 30% of the reporting requirements for the European Environment Agency for key stream data indicators, as well as the creation of modern data management, including the development of the environmental database. For more details about the project, click on the link www.ammk-rks.net/twinning