The law prescribing this obligation was passed in 2004, and operators had until 2015 at the latest to obtain these permits. Amendments to the law extended this deadline until the end of 2020, and then it was further extended until the end of 2024.
For all 20 years, a total of 67 permits were issued, and on the Ministry's list environmental protection there are 220 operators for whom it is mandatory. Last month, the Law on Integrated Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution was adopted, which stipulates a six-month deadline in which all facilities for which this permit is necessary will be re-identified, Biznis.rs writes.
What is an integrated permit?
The essence of this license is the "one stop shop" principle. Instead of factory requires separate permits for air, water, waste or noise, the integrated permit covers the entire impact of that plant on the environment in order to take into account all the pollution it creates and evaluate their integrated harmful impact.
This means that the entire production process is observed, from raw materials and energy that enter the factory, to emissions into air, water and soil, as well as waste and noise management. An important part of this process is the application of the so-called best available techniques for the individual industry, which ensure the application of the most efficient and state-of-the-art technology that minimizes pollution.
The permit precisely prescribes how many harmful substances the plant is allowed to release into the environment and obliges the operator to regularly measure and report its emissions to the competent authorities. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and local self-government bodies are responsible for its issuance.
An integrated permit is necessary for large industrial plants with high pollution potential in the energy sector, metallurgy and chemical industry, mineral industry, wood industry, waste management and agriculture.
The aim of the integrated permit is preventive. Instead of dealing with pollution only when it enters the river or air, this permit forces the industry to use cleaner technologies and consume fewer resources at the outset. Without this permit, in regulated systems, the plant would not be allowed to operate legally.
However, in practice, in Serbia, the deadlines for obtaining these permits have been moving for years, so many large plants continue to operate based on temporary solutions or submitted requests that are in the process of being supplemented.
Double standards of inspection and management inefficiency
Hristina Vojvodić, the legal advisor of the Platform for Social Development and Innovation, told Biznis.rs that the main reasons for the decade-long non-compliance lie in the lack of motivation of the economy, a mild penal policy, but also the fact that many plants do not even meet basic requirements such as water or use permits.
"There wasn't enough motivation on the part of the economy to comply with the law. Everyone had some kind of expectation that the law would be changed later, when the deadlines had already been extended twice. Or that some privileges would be introduced for existing plants. During all that time, large plants have been operating without interruption for decades without key basic permits," explains the interviewee.
During the inspection of existing facilities, it is clearly seen that only individual checks are applied, which means that the law on integrated pollution prevention is practically not applied.
"The inspectors can only determine whether the request for an integrated permit has been submitted. And that means nothing because the request can be rejected or rejected. The inspector does not prohibit the operation of the already existing plant and can only prohibit the operation of new plants," states Vojvodić.
One of the biggest problems in the system is the unequal treatment of new and existing plants, which directly distorts market competition. While new plants can be banned from operating without a permit, existing polluters have been overlooked for years.
Competent authorities often keep cases open for years without making final decisions. An example is the "Nikola Tesla" Thermal Power Plant (TENT), where meetings were held in 2014 and documentation was ordered to be supplemented, after which nothing happened and there were no consequences for the operator.
Vojvodić believes that in those situations, the responsibility really lies with the authority that decides on the issuance of the permit, because it is not right for the procedures to last ten years without ending. Deadlines for supplementing documentation should be clear, strictly followed, and if the requirements for obtaining an integrated permit are not met, they should be rejected.
Photo: Zoran Zestić/TanjugAlready seen: President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and then General Director of EPS Milorad Grčić during a tour of the Nikola Tesla B Thermal Power Plant announce major investments in 2021.
It is also difficult to obtain individual permits
Vojvodic sees the reasons why these procedures are so long and ineffective in the fact that the operators cannot meet the conditions to obtain the permits required to obtain an integrated permit, such as water and utility permits. The height of absurdity is that it is cited as an obstacle to the implementation of the law, which in her opinion is not justified because in 20 years those problems would still have to be solved.
On the other hand, such a situation is also justified by the fact that half of the plants on the list of 220 are small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have enough capacity to bring such a process to an end.
"But this means that the other half is made up of large companies that could do it. These are the most profitable companies that have the capacity to harmonize their operations with the law," she says.
Another reason cited is the high cost of conforming to the best available techniques. Vojvodić says that this is true, but that it is an expense that must be taken as a regular part of business and compliance with high standards of environmental protection. If someone is a polluter in their production process, they have to invest money to solve it.
Rewriting EU directives
Criticism also refers to the very process of passing the new law. The analyzes of the economic and financial effects were extremely poor and incomplete, without clear data on the costs of compliance or pressure on the budget, and the data appeared only later in the bill itself, according to the legal advisor.
Additionally, blindly rewriting European rules without respecting the domestic context creates new problems, because EU directives start from different assumptions. It is also foreseen that the integrated permit is requested only after obtaining the use permit, which completely excludes this environmental check from the actual planning and construction process.
"I had the feeling during the discussion of this law that the EU directive was used as a shield to reject all other proposals that were useful. The directive starts from a completely different factual situation - with them, all facilities already have basic permits. We cannot uncritically rewrite everything that is written in European directives without taking into account the context in which the activities are carried out," says Vojvodić.
As he points out, the position of the profession was that the integrated permit should be attached to the application for the issuance of a use permit in order to be sure that the plant will not start operating without all the necessary permits. "If you exclude it from that system and it is obtained only later, there is no insight into whether it was actually obtained and all control is lost."
The deadlines for obtaining integrated licenses were originally set for 2015, then moved to 2020, then to 2024, only for the new law to bring delays again and leave a six-month deadline just for operators to come forward and re-identify.
Without a fundamental change in inspection supervision and the abolition of the privileged status for large companies, the new law will not bring any progress in reducing industrial pollution in Serbia.
"In order to solve such problems, we must not have a privileged group of operators who will be looked down upon and tolerate years of violation of regulations, but the law must be the same for everyone. If this law is applied as prescribed, I really do not see how it can contribute to the efficient issuance of permits. And even if they are issued more quickly, the big question is what their quality will be and what will be the supervision of their application," concludes Vojvodic.
The new law introduces an electronic system of issuing permits, precisely defines the obligation to apply the best available technologies and stricter inspection supervision, and the Minister of Environmental Protection, Sara Pavkov, estimated that after 2030, most plants will be covered by these permits.
Source: Biznis.rs
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