AVOID ILLEGAL PROCEDURES
PREPARATION OF PLANNING DOCUMENTS

Yesterday, citizens were denied the right to participate in the decision on the urbanization of Makiško polje, Belgrade's most important water source.

In a similar way, citizens throughout Serbia are denied the right to participate in making numerous decisions that affect their lives. It is necessary to cancel all (early) public inspections, public sessions and public hearings held during the state of emergency, outside the legal framework of the Republic of Serbia.

During the epidemic in Serbia, we pointed out on several occasions the illegality of conducting (early) public inspections and public sessions of the Committee for Plans of the Belgrade City Assembly and demanded the suspension of these processes and their postponement until the epidemiological situation calms down and the state of emergency is lifted. The Planning Commission and the Secretariat for Urban Planning and Construction Affairs persistently ignore dozens of legitimate requests from numerous civic initiatives, citizen associations and professional associations. In support of this, yesterday's simulation of the public session on the PDR for part of Makiško polje, where the security and the police prevented interested citizens from entering the Secretariat building, and prevented their right to participate in this process, speaks for itself.

We remind you that in the conditions of an emergency, when tens of thousands of citizens are hospitalized or in self-isolation, and when there is a justified risk of infection of participants in public participation processes, any holding of them is a direct violation of the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Serbia. Procedures that are carried out without public participation are illegal procedures and are examples of direct violation of the guaranteed rights of all citizens to participate in the decision-making process.

The way of conducting public inspections and public meetings that the Planning Commission invented and began to implement starting with yesterday's public meeting on the PDR for part of the Makiš polje shows extreme disrespect for the public interest, the valid legal order in this country and the democratic governance that they are obliged to nurture and promote .

Of particular concern is the involvement of the police, communal militia and security guards who prevent citizens from entering the city administration building. Yesterday, a significant police force was stationed in the garage of the city administration with the obvious intention of being engaged against the citizens who came to exercise their right guaranteed by law. We demand from the head of the Police Administration for the city of Belgrade to explain why the police forces were located in the garage of the building in Kraljice Marije Street no. 1 and what was their task?

All (early) public insights and public hearings that were held during the state of emergency must be canceled immediately in order to protect the public interest, the rule of law and democracy, which is fundamentally threatened by the actions of the authorities in Serbia. Making decisions in a way that violates and limits the right of citizens to participate is unconstitutional and illegal. Those who participated in these processes, knowingly violating the laws, must answer for abuse of public authority, capture of the state and institutions.

We invite the general public, experts, other organizations and citizens to become familiar with the dangerous precedents that are being introduced and the projects that are being developed to the detriment of all of us, and to raise their voices in defense of the public interest and public goods.

In Belgrade, December 16, 2020

Center for Cultural Decontamination, Ministry of Space, Regulatory Institute for Renewable Energy and the Environment - RERI, We are not drowning Belgrade, Organization for Political Ecology Polekol, Belgrade Open School, Right to Water Initiative, World Nature Organization WWF Adria