At the heart of the former Yugoslavia

Serbia, the core of what used to be Yugoslavia, is today reduced to a small state of merely 88,000 square kilometres, about the same size as Austria. While the country accepted the secession of Montenegro in 2006, Serbia has refused to recognise the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo in February 2008.
Aside from the province of Kosovo and Metohija in the south, Serbia is made up of two distinct areas: the province of Vojvodina in the north and central Serbia (the latter is the only province not to have its own regional government). Vojvodina, from an economic point of view, is the most developed region of Serbia, partly thanks to its having been ruled by the Austro-Hungarian empire until the First World War. It is home to about 2 million people, mainly Serbs (65%) but also Hungarians (14%), Slovaks (3%), Croats (3%) and other ethnic groups.
In all, about 9.4 million people live in Serbia (including Kosovo), of whom 1.5 million are in the capital, Belgrade. Other important cities are Novi Sad in Vojvodina (300,000 inhabitants), Niš (250,000) and Kragujevac (175,000).
Serbia’s form of government is a parliamentary, democratic republic and its prime minister is 64-year-old Vojislav Kostunica. The legislative branch of government is the National Assembly, which is composed of 250 members, elected every four years.
Economically, Serbia is regaining ground lost during the war and the particular political situation of the Milosevic years (isolation, economic contraction, international sanctions, damage to the country’s infrastructure and reputation). As of January 2005, gross domestic product was only 50-60% of its 1990 level.
Since 2001, however, most economic indicators have been positive, in part thanks to foreign investment flows. In 2004, growth in its gross domestic product touched 8%, although pro capita GDP was only 2,700 euros the following year.

Of the four Balkan countries surveyed on this site, Serbia offers the best investment opportunities in the area of environmental CDM projects. According to the Italian Environment Ministry, it has the potential to generate carbon credits amounting to the equivalent of 20-25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, 10 times as much as Albania or Montenegro.

The CDM projects that have already been identified in terms of waste management involve equipping a landfill site for biogas recovery as well as trapping methane at stock farms and at a distillery. In terms of developing renewable energy, there are projects to build mini-hydroelectric stations, biomass plants and wind farms. As for energy efficiency, investments are needed at a fertilizer factory and to build a centralised heating system and a cogeneration plant as well as improvements in street lighting. Finally, carbon credits can be obtained through forestry projects and the use of biomass from a nature reserve or else from the creation of green belts to act as wind breaks for prime agricultural land.

ContaCtS

IN ITALIA

Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea
Department for environmental research and development
Director general: Corrado Clini
Tel. 06.57228102/03/04
Fax: 06.57228173/75
E-mail:pia-sdg@minambiente.it

In Serbia: ROBERTO BINATTI

Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea
Republic of Italy
Task Force for Central and Eastern Europe
Kneza Milosa 56 – 11000 Belgrade
Tel. +381.11.36.29.225 / 227 / 760
Fax. +381.11.36.29.876
e-mail: binatti.roberto@minambiente.it