PANDEMIC ≠ EXCUSE

The city of Belgrade is grossly violating civil rights in its effort to legalize a harmful and illegal project for the construction of a residential and business complex in Makiško Polje without the participation of the public..

The Secretariat for Urbanism and Construction Affairs of the City of Belgrade is on December 12 issued a statement and informed the citizens of Belgrade that the Planning Commission revoked their rights guaranteed by law to participate in the decision-making process on planning and urban acts.

In this announcement, the Secretariat for Urban Planning and Construction Affairs of the City of Belgrade refers to the provisions of the Law on Planning and Construction and the Rulebook on the Content, Method and Procedure of Creating Spatial and Urban Planning Documents, and then, in the same announcement invents the procedure by which the public is denied the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Serbia.

It is illegal and unconstitutional to derogate from the provisions of laws and bylaws that regulate public inspection procedures with "measures" prescribed by the Government of Serbia, which the city of Belgrade arbitrarily interprets as it suits daily needs and particular interests. In addition, the Commission for Plans does not refer to any legal act of the Government of the RS, which prescribes epidemiological measures, and the basis for making such a conclusion is questionable and disputed.

The public session of the Planning Commission is a public event that can be attended by all interested parties and the process of conducting public inspection and public session is based on the basic principle of planning and construction prescribed in the Law - the principle of public participation.

Reducing attendance to a "minimum number of representatives", "only those whose presence is necessary" and "with the participation of one representative (...) in order to comply with all legal provisions and norms" represents a gross violation of the concept of public discussion and public participation, and reduces them to mere form.

These legal acts do not delegate to the Planning Commission or the Secretariat for Urban Planning and Construction the authority to determine who can and cannot attend a public meeting, nor to determine the number of interested citizens who can exercise their right. The Planning Commission does not have the mandate to amend the aforementioned laws and regulations, but rather the state administration bodies that adopted these acts, and with this procedure, the Planning Commission of the Belgrade City Assembly went beyond its scope of competence and grossly violated the law. If the conditions for holding a public session do not exist, which is undoubtedly the case considering the epidemiological situation, the session cannot be held until the conditions are met.

Until now, the public has not had a single opportunity to hear from the competent institutions the justification of the plan for Makiško polje, as well as the plan for Kosančićev venac and the plan that envisages changes and additions to the PGR of the city of Belgrade. Public meetings represent the first and only opportunity to hear arguments in support of the implementation of these, and many other, illegal and dangerous and harmful plans for the city of Belgrade and its citizens. Precisely because the plan and the report on the strategic impact assessment contain numerous formal and material deficiencies, it is necessary that these documents be presented in detail and explained to citizens at a public meeting. Hiding behind epidemiological measures is an act unworthy of public institutions.

The potential intensive construction on Makiško polje in the immediate water source protection zone represents a distinct environmental risk and threatens to impair public health and quality of life in Belgrade. The Law on Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment establishes the obligation to organize a public inspection and public hearing in the process of approving a strategic impact assessment report. The report on the strategic assessment of the impact of the draft plan for the detailed regulation of part of the Makiško field was prepared below the legal minimum, that is, it is illegal and does not present the consequences of the planned construction, and accordingly it must be rejected. At the same time, not a single document must enter the decision-making procedure without a public hearing - for which it is not enough to provide only the physical minimums for the presence of people (necessary distances and protective measures), but in the conditions of a pandemic, when tens of thousands of citizens due to impaired health prevented from participating in a public debate, it cannot even hold one.

The Secretariat announces that the Planning Commission has no grounds for holding public sessions differently in the premises of the City Administration. In March of this year, the Planning Commission showed that there is a possibility for a different approach and postponing (early) public inspections and public sessions. Therefore, there is a basis for suspension and delay, but not for limiting the rights guaranteed by law.

The Planning Commission of the Belgrade City Assembly, as an executive body, has the authority and legal obligation to conduct the process of public inspections and public sessions in accordance with the applicable laws and by-laws of the Republic of Serbia. Since the epidemiological conditions make it impossible to implement them in a way that would allow all interested parties to enjoy the right to participate in decision-making processes related to city planning, we request that all (early) public inspections and public meetings of the Planning Commission be interrupted and postponed until calm epidemiological situation and lifting of the state of emergency.

In Belgrade, 14.12.2020. year

Center for Cultural Decontamination, Ministry of Space, Ne davimo Belgrade, Regulatory Institute for Renewable Energy - RERI, Organization for Political Ecology Polekol