Importance of strengthening of the democratic and political capacity in environmental policy of Serbia

Environmental policy is one of the new policies in the corpus of public policies in Serbia. Although the beginning of environmental policy in Serbia, or organized directing of society towards the environment, can be noticed even at the beginning of the nineties, the real development and intensification of this policy occurs only in the last five years. The slowness of the acceptance of the political idea that society and the state must change their attitude towards the environment is one of the causes of inefficiency of environmental policy in Serbia. This is also supported by the fact that in the process of conception and implementation of environmental policy in Serbia an essential element is missing that is reflected in the lack of sufficient democratic and political capacity. Environmental policy in Serbia is still defined and viewed as a strictly national policy, as a right and obligation of public authorities to protect the environment, while completely neglecting the role of other social institutions and especially the citizens. The lack of democracy in decision-making on environmental image of Serbia is also visible in the non-use of different models of direct democracy, and lack of objective and timely information of citizens about environmental problems in the country. In that way, the combination of impairment of democracy in decision-making, lack of information, as well as slowness of solving environmental problems and so-called "black spots" in Serbia leads to the conclusion that the environmental policy of the Republic of Serbia, led by the state authorities, shows signs of a specific "eco-monopolism" that is inappropriate in the democratic spirit of environmental policy.