On 3rd December 2015 RARIS and the National Convention on the European Union jointly organized a conference on the topic of EU accession in the sector of water protection “Challenges and the way of resolving the issue of water protection”.

The most important EU directives in the area of water protection as well as the activities that the Negotiating Team for the Chapter 27- Environment has pursued so far, were presented at the conference. Special attention was paid to the process of harmonization of national legislation with the EU documents and to the deadlines set for the application of certain directives.

In the second part of the conference some initial ideas for recommendations of significance for eastern Serbia in the EU accession process in the area of water protection were presented.

The following dignitaries spoke at the conference:

• Dobrila Kujundzic, Ministry of agriculture and environmental protection: Regulatory programme of Serbian government in the area of water management;
• Natasa Djereg, Centre for Ecology and Sustainable Development: Discussion paper on the status of implementation of Directives in the area of water management;
• Prof. Dragoljub Todic, PHD, Institute for International Politics and Economics: Harmonization and implementation of regulations in the area of water management and nature protection of significance for eastern Serbia
• Vladan Jeremic, RARIS: Experiences of Regional EU platform for eastern Serbia

National Convention on the EU is a permanent body for thematically structured debate on Serbian accession into the European Union, between representatives of the governmental bodies, political parties, NGOs, experts, syndicates, private sector and representatives of professional organizations.

RARIS is, among other things, in charge of the implementation of the regional EU platform for eastern Serbia, which was formed in the framework of the "Eastern Serbia on its path towards the EU": this platform should define the important recommendations from the region on what the region considers important in the process of negotiations regarding the chapters Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development.