CPII and Municipal Council, Durrës organize with the groups of interest the Round Table on Environment

The Municipal Council of Durrës, in cooperation with the Citizens’ Transparency Office of Durrës (branch of the Center for Public Information Issues), organized on Friday,  09 March 2012, in the premises of “Adriatik” Hotel, the meeting with the topic: “Round table on environment, with the interested stakeholders”, in the framework of drafting of the budget of Durrës Municipality, 2012”. This meeting which was supported by  National Endowment for Democracy, with headquarters in Washington D.C., aimed at the promotion of effective  participation in the local decision making process for the budget, specifically the discussion and interaction between local decision makers, groups of interest and public about environmental issues in this city.

The meeting was attended by the chairman of the Municipal Council, Municipality representatives, Head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, entrepreneurs in the recycling and transport industry, environmental experts and citizens engaged through the Citizens’ Transparency Office. The discussion about the environment in Durres city was highly publicized by the most important national media outlets.

This panel raised and developed discussions about a large number of key problems in respect of the environment such as the construction of a landfill for the collection and processing of wastes, use of alternative energies, effectiveness of tax collection for city cleaning, green areas, rehabilitation of polluted environments etc. The representatives of the groups of interest, experts and citizens gave concrete recommendations to be included in the discussions of the Municipal Council for the budget 2012.

In his opening speech, the chairman of the Municipal Council, Indrit Hamiti, stressed the fact that discussions about the budget 2012 with the interested stakeholders begin precisely with a round table on the environment. Mr. Hamiti emphasized that the Municipal Council of Durrës aims to become not only a promoter of debate with the real environmental stakeholders in Durres but also to offer them concrete support through the design of a “core-funding” program which will stimulate the research institutes, environmental business and all interested stakeholders, attaching for the first time a concrete dimension to the support of environmental initiatives at the level of the local decision making process.

The CPII Executive Director, Gerti Shella, stated in his opening discussion “The citizens are entitled to be informed and participate in the decision making process”. He emphasized that a fresh component of this meeting was the cooperation of CPII Center with the Municipal Council to develop public discussions about environmental issues, on the eve of approval of the budget 2012.

Mr. Bardhyl Balteza, entrepreneur in the recycling industry, also raised key issues for discussion. He spoke about the separation, processing and recycling of urban wastes and conversion of wastes into energy. The position against of Mr. Balteza for the construction of a landfill encouraged debates between the groups of interest and Municipality representatives. Finally, the parties agreed to build a partnership between the public and the private sector for resolving the landfill issue.

All meeting representatives gave their proposals among which we may highlight the proposal of the transport entrepreneur, Mr.  Ardian Muka, who asked the municipality equipment and supplies optimally reduce the pollution through the transition from oil to bio diesel. Further, the professor Adem Hyseni was concerned about the constructions without criteria in Durrës city. He claimed the updating of the geological risk map. The professor of the Geoscience Institute, Petrit Zorba, through an impressive presentation, recommended the use, due to the favorable climate of this city, of alternative energies such as sun or sea waves. Another key stakeholder in this round table was also the Regional Environmental Agency, whose director, Mr. Ramazan Kalia, claimed the revitalization of controlling and decision-making functions of the Municipal Council.

All proposals listed by the experts and groups of interest, to be transcribed by CPII Center and Office for Citizens’ Transparency, were collected by the end of the meeting. These recommendations will be transmitted for further evaluation to the Municipal advisors of Durrës city, who will involve them in the discussions about the budget 2012 of the Municipality of that city.

This activity, the first one directly launched by the Municipal Council, aims to strengthen not only its decision-making function but also the controlling function, through the identification of current needs for drafting of environmental packages, which should establish the standards of the environmental decision-making by the local decision-makers. This round table establishes a new standard not only at local level but also at national level, where the role of consultation with the interested stakeholders was commonly played by the mayors, although they are not the real decision-makers. This is also vital for the budget approval which in fact is an absolute prerogative of the municipal councils.