Posted on : 12/22/2016

Director of German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Belgrade, Mr Gerhard Sippel and the Deputy Resident Representative at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Serbia, Ms Steliana Nedera signed the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two organizations in the field of energy efficiency on the premises of the United Nations building in Belgrade on 13 December 2016.
The purpose of this memorandum is to define a framework of cooperation and consolidate the intentions of both organizations to work jointly on the achievement of strategic goals of Serbia, such as sustainable development and climate change mitigation and adaptation measures
In this respect, the cooperation shall in particular include, but shall not be limited to projects in the field of energy efficiency implemented by both sides in accordance with their programme objectives and in cooperation with the competent institutions of the Republic of Serbia, primarily with the Ministry of Mining and Energy.
Since 2015 the two sides have conducted complementary multi-year projects in the field of energy efficiency such as: “Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings” (GIZ) and “Removing Barriers to Promote and Support Energy Management Systems in Municipalities throughout Serbia” (UNDP). The objective of both projects is to increase investments in energy efficiency measures in public buildings and to facilitate their more energy efficient operation in general. The two parties have agreed to harmonize and coordinate relevant activities taking into consideration that it is necessary to have technical preparation of a large number of projects, which implies the existence of a developed system for data collection on public buildings and energy consumption in them, for the achievement of this objective. All data on public buildings collected by both sides in the field will be entered into a single database of the Republic of Serbia through the Information System for Energy Management (ISEM). GIZ activities will be focused primarily on data collection in the field, while UNDP will provide user trainings, data entry, management, maintenance and further development of ISEM.
Both sides expect to maximize the synergy of the two projects through effective coordination, information exchange and coordination of their activities.
The signing of the Memorandum was attended by representatives of the institutions of the Republic of Serbia Milos Banjac, Assistant Minister, Ministry of Mining and Energy,  the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, Aleksandra Tomic, President of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of public spending and Vice President of the Parliamentary Committee for Economy and Regional Development, Miodrag Gluščević, Head of the Department for Communal Issues, Urban Planning and Environment in the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities of Serbia.
Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Mining and Energy, Milos Banjac has said that this year, in accordance to the Law on the Efficient Use of Energy, Serbia has operationally introduced an energy management system. This system includes a broad set of regulatory, organizational, incentive and other measures and activities implemented by state administration bodies and designated institutions within their competence. The most important activities of the system include the collection and data processing on energy consumption in the public sector, carried out by energy managers in local self-governments, state authorities and public services. Serbia has developed a national information system operating for a few months now for the purpose of collecting, processing and analyzing data. Since the establishment of energy management system is a lengthy and demanding process, coordinated and concerted help provided by GIZ, UNDP and other donors in data collection is welcome and will certainly contribute to the achievement of goals of the energy efficiency policy that Serbia has been implementing for a long time.

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