City of Belgrade: Between Reality and the European Green Capital

Abstract

Internationally granted and recognized awards, that a city could win, represent humongous capital for the city itself but also for the entire state. Starting from the support for improvement and empowerment of certain aspects, all the way to boosting number of tourists, a nomination process brings entire series of direct and indirect benefits. One of such awards is the European Green Capital that requires, similar to other competitions of that kind, serious preparation process and significant fulfilment of preconditions. Judging by the documents prepared by or in cooperation with the Belgrade city Secretariat for Environmental Protection, environmental filed is one of the most covered when it comes to the city development. However, qualities of a green capital depend on substantially more complex set of factors than just an active engagement of an institution or a sector. In addition, Belgrade differentiates from the cities that have been awarded the European Green City title so far for being a non-EU city and for still undergoing an intense urban transformation followed by economic challenges – characteristic for transitional countries. In September 2018, the Mayor of Belgrade signed an agreement letter with the Mayor of Ljubljana (the European Green Capital for 2016), thus establishing official cooperation in experience and knowledge exchange on the matter of nomination and winning the Green Capital title. Therefore, the main focus of this article will be review of current state of Belgrade‘s environmental qualities and other preconditions necessary for the European Green City competition nomination. Indicating the difference between where it currently is and where it should be, the results are expected to help in the Belgrade‘s nomination process, but also to be an example for any other European city with the similar ambition.