Accidents happen. And we would all like to think that if we were involved in one, an ambulance would be there to take us to hospital for treatment in a matter of minutes. We would also like to think that all the best equipment would be on board the vehicle in case paramedics needed to treat us while on our way there.

Since the 1800s Palić Lake, on the outskirts of the city of Subotica, in the north of Serbia close to the Hungarian border, has been a popular spa resort. But the renowned health-giving properties of the lake’s water began to evaporate in the 1960s due to extensive pollution and the uncontrolled growth of algae. Dried and dredged to remove sludge in 1971, the lake was refilled with fresh water in 1976 and a wastewater treatment plant opened. But with time, the plant’s equipment and sludge treatment processes became outdated and the quality of both the lake’s water and the local water supply deteriorated as a result. It was time for the plant to have an overhaul.

“We used to live in a cardboard village without any hygiene conditions, we slept together with rats. No human being would have endured all the things we have during the past 11 years. But thanks to this project we finally have a roof above our head” – Mr Nikolić, Požarevac, central Serbia.

In June 2012, a laboratory kitted out with the latest equipment required to develop 3D digital models and rapid prototyping of new manufacturing products opened at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Kraljevo, south-west Serbia. ‘3D World’, the name which the laboratory goes by, was set up as part of the IMPuls project, designed to raise the competitiveness of manufacturing in the country’s southern central districts of Raška, Moravica and Rasina. Funded by a grant from the EU’s Regional Socio-Economic Development Programme 2, IMPuls focused its activities on transferring technological know-how in innovation at higher educational establishments in the region to 500 local manufacturing companies.

The concept of consumer protection as a right for every citizen is still not yet fully embedded in Serbian society. Several steps have been taken to change the situation in the last decade, most notably in 2005, when Serbia adopted its first consumer protection law. However, a meaningful legal infrastructure for consumer protection was only effectively put in place in the country in 2010, when a new Law on Consumer Protection was adopted.