06 September 2011 06/09/2011 - Today, in the premises of the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the third consecutive meeting of the Steering Committee of the twinning project Support for the environmental sector in Kosovo, funded by the European Commission, was held. The purpose of the meeting was, among other things, to discuss the current progress of implementation, further activities, and the missions planned for the fourth quarter of the project.
At the meeting, it was stated that after 9 months since the start of the project, satisfactory results have been achieved. So far, 33 missions have been carried out, 19 internal workshops have been organized for officials of the MMPH, AMMK, and other units, and one workshop with an international character. Also, two study visits have been conducted, one in Finland and the other in Latvia, where around 20 officials from the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning and from the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency respectively have gained the experiences of European Union countries in the field of environmental protection.
Within the framework of the results achieved so far in the twinning project, reporting to the European Environment Agency, which AMMK has carried out with the help of experts engaged in the project, was also highlighted. During this period, AMMK submitted electronic reports to the European Environment Agency on: air emissions, greenhouse gases, protected nature areas, monthly reports on ozone, as well as exchanged other information of interest.
The direct beneficiary of the project Support for the environmental sector in Kosovo is the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency (AMMK), while the project is being implemented by the Austrian Environment Agency, in collaboration with experts from the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Environmental, Geological, and Meteorological Center of Latvia.
The main objectives of the project are: the consolidation of administrative capacities in AMMK and the relevant departments of MMPH in legal, institutional, and technical matters of environmental monitoring, with particular focus on air and water monitoring, as well as fulfilling reporting requirements to the European Environment Agency-EEA and to the European Environment Information and Observation Network-EIONET.