The press conference was held in the premises of the local assembly of Municipality of Berane, in which, the project Green lands financed from the EU funds was presented. The aim of the project Green Lands is to enhance the waste management system in targeted areas, to reduce the pollution and to increase the capacities of public institutions in adequate gathering of waste in municipalities of Berane and Malesi e Madhe.

The mayor of municipality of Berane, Dragoslav Šćekić, said that one of the main conditions for prosperity and development of municipality and country is healthy environment, adding that without organized and sustainable system for waste management no country can function properly. “Waste management is being for many years one of the main problems not only for municipality of Bernae, but also one of the main problem of Montenegro. It is only possible for to improve the environment protection if the local and national authorities join forces and work with joint strong efforts. In that way, we will make a joint step in process of accessing the EU that treats the environment protection as separate chapter and acquires huge efforts and funds”, stated the mayor and continued by saying that “municipality of Berane will have serious approach regarding the selective waste disposal and that they are already in cooperation with the Ministry of sustainable development and tourism related to the main project of the construction of the a recyclable yard that will close the process cycle that is financially sustainable and that will be realized for the benefit of all citizens as a durable solution when it comes to integrated waste management”.

Chief of cabinet of the Mayor of the municipality of Malesia e Madhe, Lisjana Cukaj, said that they are continuously working on the enhancement of the environment protection and life conditions of the citizens and that this present not only local, but also a national issue. She implied that „implementation of this project is an important step toward radical changes from the aspect of waste and environment protection“, emphasizing the importance of cross-border cooperation for Montenegro and Albania, especially regarding the exchange of the experience between municipalities.

Programme manager for territorial cooperation of the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, Donata Von Sigsfeld stated that the European Union dedicated 11,9 million euro within new financial perspective 2014 – 2020  for Programme Montenegro-Albania. She explained that „collective responisbility is important and that the project should be implemented under motto treat your land as you treat your garden“.

On behalf of the Ministry of Finance of Montenegro, Luka Mugoša spoke about the project, pointing out that in total 86 application were received within the first call for proposals and that the project of the municipality of Berane and its partners was evaluated as one of the most relevant regarding the achievement of the objectives of the Programme and therefore was selected for funding.

The representatives of the project partners, Pier Paolo Ambrosi director of VIS Albania and Marko Đelović director of Caritas Montenegro, attended the conference on presentation of the project, as well as project manager of the project Maja Pešić.

This project is implemented within the 1st CfP of the CBC Programme Montenegro-Albania 2014-2020 and it deals with the environment protection.

Source: internet presentation of municipality of Berane.