Coalition 27’s latest shadow report entitled "Money talks" was presented on Wednesday, May 8th, at the Cultural Center GRAD. It is the sixth report presenting the progress of Serbia in the process of European integration in the field of environmental protection and climate change, drafted by the civil society organizations gathered within the Coalition 27 in cooperation with the RES Foundation. The event was attended by representatives of the state administration, Minister of Environmental Protection, representatives of civil society organizations, professional and interested public.

The Report analyzes progress in nine areas covered by the Chapter 27: horizontal legislation, air quality, waste management, water quality, nature protection, chemicals management, noise, forestry and climate change. The focus of this year's Report was the environmental protection financing, which was evaluated as insufficient, not only in relation to the needs, but also being underused, since the Ministry of Environmental Protection spent only 52.62% of the budget planned for 2019. Mirjana Jovanović, project manager at the Belgrade Open School, presented the results of the Report. Namely, she pointed out that in spite of the Fiscal Council recommendation for allocation of 14.4 billion dinars for the environmental protection in 2019, the budget for 2019 for this purpose allocated only 1.3 billion. Simon Ilse, director of the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Serbia, pointed out the importance of financing and reminded that investing in environmental protection is investment in our future and an economic opportunity for Serbia's green growth. Milica Damnjanović Zantvort, a volunteer of the “Friday for the Future” organization, invited all participants to stand up for climate change and join the “Friday for the future” movement, in order to save the future of the planet. Goran Trivan, Minister of Environmental Protection, in addition to his presentation, answered the participants' questions and confirmed that there is a lack of capacity for tackling all the issues identified in the Report. All participants agreed about the importance of raising the awareness of all citizens, especially decision makers, about the challenges of the Chapter 27, while the implementation issue must be addressed through the capacity building at the local level.

Coalition 27 gathers the following organizations: Belgrade Open School, Birth Protection and Study Society of Serbia, Climate Action Network (CAN Europe), Environment Engineering Group, Environment Improvement Center, One degree Serbia, Safer Chemicals Alternative, Young Researches of Serbia and the World Organization for Nature (WWF). This year's Report was created with the support of Heinrich Boell Foundation and Sweden.