Legal Acts in English

This Law shall regulate the integral environmental protection system that shall enable exercising of the right of man to life and development in healthy environment and a balanced relationship between economic development and the environment in the Republic of Serbia.

The environmental protection system shall comprise the measures, conditions and instruments for:

1) sustainable management, conservation of natural balance, entirety, diversity and quality of natural values and conditions for survival of all living beings;

2) prevention, control, reduction and rehabilitation of all forms of environmental pollution.

Sustainable management of natural values and environmental protection shall be realised in compliance with this Law and a special law.

Individual expressions used in this Law shall have the following meanings:

1) the environment shall be the set of natural and created values, the complex mutual relations of which comprise the setting, i.e. the space and conditions for life;

2) quality of the environment shall be the condition of the environment that is presented through the physical, chemical, biological, aesthetic and other indicators;

3) natural values shall be the natural wealth comprising: the air, water, land, forests, geological resources, plant and animal life;

4) a protected natural good shall be the preserved part of the nature with special values and characteristics (geodiversity, biodiversity, area, landscape, etc.), of the permanent ecological, scientific, cultural, educational, health and recreational, tourist and other significance, due to which, as a good of general interest, it shall enjoy special protection;

5) a public natural good shall be a regulated or nonregulated part of the natural wealth, i.e. air, water resources, coastal areas, underground resources, forest resources, landscape or space, that is equally accessible by all;

6) geodiversity (geological diversity) shall be the presence or distribution of diverse elements and forms of geological conformation, geological structures and processes, geochronological units, rocks and minerals of various composition and formation types and various paleo-ecosystems modified in space under the influences of internal and external geodynamic factors during geological time;

7) biodiversity (biological diversity) shall be the diversity of organisms within a species, among species and among ecosystems, and it shall include the entire diversity of genes, species and ecosystems on the local, national, regional and global levels;

8) a register of environmental pollution sources shall be the set of systematised data and information on types, quantities, method and places of introduction, release or disposal of pollutants in gaseous, liquid and solid state of aggregation or of the release of energy (noise, vibrations, heat, ionising and non-ionising radiation) from the point, linear and surface sources of pollution into the environment;

9) an activity with environmental impact (hereinafter: activity) shall be any intervention (continuous or temporary) whereby the states and conditions in the environment are being changed and/or may be changed, and it shall pertain to: the use of resources and natural goods; processes of production and trade; distribution and use of materials; release (emission) of pollutants in water, air or land; management of waste and waste waters, chemicals and noxious substances; noise and vibrations; ionising and non-ionising radiation; accidents;

10) an installation shall be a stationary technical unit in which one or several activities laid down by a special regulation are conducted and for the operation of which permit shall be issued, as well as any other activity where there is a technical connection with the activities performed in that place and which may produce emissions and pollution;

11) environmental pollution shall be the introduction of pollutants or energy in the environment, caused by human activity or natural processes that has or may have adverse effects on the quality of the environment and human health;

12) environmental capacity shall be the ability of the environment to accommodate a particular quantity of pollutants per unit of time and space without irreversible damage to the environment;

13) an endangered environment shall be a specific part of the space where pollution or risk from pollution exceeds environmental capacity;

14) a polluter shall be a legal or a natural person polluting the environment through their activity or inactivity;

15) pollutants shall be the substances the release of which into the environment is impacting or may impact its natural composition, characteristics and integrity;

16) environmental burden shall be the individual or aggregate impact of activities on the environment that may be presented as the total (a number of related components), common (a number of heterogeneous components), permitted (within the limit values) and excessive (exceeding the permitted limit values) burden;

17) environmental degradation shall be the process of environmental quality deterioration by a natural or human activity or as a consequence of a failure to take measures to remove the causes of quality deterioration or damage to the environment, natural values or value created through work;

18) an emission shall be a discharge and leakage of pollutants in gaseous, liquid and solid state of aggregation or energy emission from a source of pollution in the environment;

19) the pollutant level shall be the concentration of a pollutant in the environment, whereby the quality of the environment in a certain period of time and space is indicated;

20) waste shall be each substance or object defined by the law regulating waste management;

21) hazardous substances shall be chemicals and other substances having harmful and dangerous properties;

22) a dangerous substance shall be the substance defined by the regulation of the European Union on the control of major accident hazards involving dangerous substances;

23) the risk shall be a certain level of probability that an activity will, directly or indirectly, cause a danger for the environment, human life and health;

24) an accident shall be a sudden and uncontrolled event that is caused by the release, discharge or dispersion of hazardous substances, during activities on production, use, processing, storage, disposal or prolonged inadequate keeping (hereinafter: the chemical accident);

25) rehabilitation, i.e. remediation shall be the measures-taking process to stop pollution and further degradation of the environment up to the level that is safe for future use of the location, including spatial planning, revitalization and reclamation;

26) the public shall be one or a number of natural or legal persons, associations, organisations or groups thereof;

27) sources of environmental pollution shall be location-specific and spatially limited spotted, linear and surface sources of pollutants and energy in the environment;

28) the public concerned shall be the public affected or likely to be affected by the adoption of a decision of a competent authority or that may have an interest therein, including citizens' associations and social organisations active in the field of environmental protection and recorded with the competent authority;

29) the competent authority shall be the authority responsible for the fulfilment of obligations within the scope of powers determined by this Law, and specifically:

- the ministry in charge of environmental affairs;

- the provincial authority in charge of environmental affairs;

- the competent authority of the local self-government unit;

29a) the public governmental authority shall be the authority responsible for implementation of obligations within the authorisations determined by this Law, and specifically:

- the ministry in charge of environmental affairs;

- the provincial authority in charge of environmental affairs;

- the competent authority of the local self-government unit;

- other state authority, authority of territorial autonomy, authority of a local self-government, as well as the organisation to which the exercising of public powers is entrusted;

- natural and legal persons performing public functions or exercising public powers, including special duties, activities or services relating to the environment, as well as all other natural or legal persons exercising public powers or rendering public services relating to the environment, which are under their control;

- a legal person that is established by a state authority, an authority of territorial autonomy, authority of a local self-government, as well as the organisation to which the exercising of public powers is entrusted, or which is financed entirely, i.e. in a predominant part from the budget funds;

30) an operator shall be any natural or legal person that, in compliance with regulations, operates or controls an installation, i.e. an establishment, or is authorised to pass economic decisions on the technical functioning of the installation;

31) a Seveso installation, i.e. an installation in which activities where hazardous substance is present or may be present in quantities equal or above the prescribed ones (hereinafter: a Seveso installation) shall be the technical unit within an establishment in which hazardous substances are produced, used, stored or handled. The installation shall include all the equipment, structures, pipework, machinery, tools, internal railway sidings and depots, docks, unloading quays serving the installations, jetties, warehouses or similar structures, floating or on land, which are necessary for the operation of that installation;

32) an establishment shall include the spatial entity under the control of an operator, where hazardous substances are present in one or more installations, including related or common infrastructure, i.e. related or common activities;

33) requirements in respect of environmental quality shall be the set of conditions and requirements that must be fulfilled at a certain time and in a certain space or in certain environmental media, in compliance with special regulations;

33a) information on the environment shall be each piece of information in written, visual, audio, electronic or other material form, which is at the disposal of a public governmental authority or kept on behalf of the public governmental authority, on:

(1) the condition of environmental constituents, such as the air and atmosphere, water, ground, land, areas and natural areas, including swamp, coastal, river and lake areas, biodiversity and its components, geodiversity and geoheritage, genetically modified organisms, as well as on interaction among these constituents;

(2) factors such as substances, energy, noise, radiation or waste, including the radioactive waste, emissions, discharges and other forms of emissions in the environment that are impacting or that may impact the environmental constituents referred to in sub-item (1) of this item;

(3) measures (including administrative measures), such as: public policies, strategies, legislation, plans, programs, agreements on issues in the field of environment, and on the activities impacting or potentially impacting the constituents and factors referred to in sub-items (1) and (2) of this item, as well as on the determined measures or activities for the protection of such constituents;

(4) reports on implementation of regulations in the field of environment;

(5) cost-benefit analyses and economic analyses and assumptions used within the measures and activities referred to in sub-item (3) of this item;

(6) condition of human health and safety, including jeopardizing of food chain, as well as, where necessary, on the conditions of human life, on immovable cultural resources and the protected surroundings thereof and construction facilities, to the extent of actual or potential impact of the condition of environmental constituents referred to in sub-item (1) of this item on them or, through such constituents, condition of any of the factors referred to in sub-items (2) and (3) of this item;

33b) information kept on behalf of a public governmental authority shall be the information on the environment in the possession of a natural or legal person that keeps such information on behalf of a public governmental authority;

33c) sludge shall be the processed or unprocessed residue from the technological waste waters treatment plants;*

33d) a person requiring the information on the environment may be any person, in compliance with the law regulating access to the information of public importance;

33e) information pertaining to jeopardizing, i.e. protection of the environment shall be the information on sudden hazard that is caused by human activity or is a consequence of natural phenomena, including the information on emissions released in the environment.