Creation of Green Parliamentary Lobby Groups Initiated

22 May 2007

The Macedonian Green Centre, an organization working on advocacy, lobbying and research on environmental issues, started the implementation of its project for �Creation of Green Lobby Group in Macedonian Parliament�. The project is financed by the UK Embassy in Macedonia.

The project aims to create a sustainable lobby group in the Sobranie which will maintain good cooperation with environmental civic association, with the goal to inform the Parliament and the Government institutions with environmental priorities in the country.

The �Vote Nature� campaign that led to this project was prepared and implemented by MGC, in cooperation with several other environmental NGOs, during the 2006 Parliamentary Elections. Its main goal was to increase the prominence and significance of four national environmental topics.

The MGC research conducted in preparation of this project show thatthe environment remains a low priority on the political agenda and that there is great space for improvement. For example, last year, of a total of 1641 inquiries to the Government, only 52 (3.2%) were made to the Minister of Environment.

The project activities should lead to greater cooperation between environmental NGOs and MPs; increased awareness of MPs on environment-related issues; organize debate on problems and initiatives in the Parliament; create improved environmental policies in Macedonia; improve the public information on environmental legislation; and give the public with opportunity to present environmental issues/problems to the Parliamentary lobby group.