Bitola's Environmental Plan Waited Two Years for Its First Meeting: Konjanovski Celebrates the Start, but Nobody Says What Has Been Done

The Municipality of Bitola bragged this week about a "first session". The coordinating body that is supposed to monitor the implementation of the Local Environmental Action Plan (LEAP) has finally sat down at a table. A detail the press release didn't emphasise: the plan was adopted in 2024.

The timeline is simple if you read the dates instead of the praise. The LEAP for 2024-2030 was adopted two years ago. The body that is supposed to monitor it was only set up by a council decision on July 7 this year. The first session was held on October 7. Two years from the plan to the first meeting of the people who are supposed to check whether the plan is being implemented.

At the session, Mayor Toni Konjanovski said the common task is "to turn the LEAP from a strategic document into concrete results" and that adopting the plan is only a "starting basis". True. Except that basis sat there for two years without the body that was supposed to monitor it.

What was done - nobody says

The body has 11 members: the mayor, people from the administration, councillors, directors of public enterprises and representatives of civic associations. At the session they were presented with "the degree of implementation so far" of the measures. How high that degree is, the public didn't find out. The municipality's announcement contains no information on what has been done, how much money has been spent or which organisations were partners.

And the topics aren't abstract. The LEAP covers waste management, illegal dumps, air quality and nature protection - things every resident of Bitola feels on the street, not in strategic documents. If after two years the only news is that the body has met, when will we hear the news that something has actually been cleaned up?