321-i. Comments: draft environmental laws

The NCEA commented on Georgia's draft laws on environmental permits and on state ecological expertise (EIA review).

Advisory reports and other documents

Significant details

The Georgian Minister of Environment requested the NCEA to review two draft environmental laws:

• The Law of Georgia on Environmental Permit;
• The Law of Georgia on State Ecological Expertise.

The NCEA reviewed completeness and consistency of both laws, using the EU EIA directive and international good practice as a review framework. It issued an advice of the secretariat in which some of the main comments are:

• The laws do not fully comply with the EU EIA directive on a number of issues, including the list of activities requiring EIA and the obligation to study reasonable alternatives;
• The laws do not prescribe scoping, which is considered goog practice in EIA;
• Aims of the laws seem rather ambitious;
• No provisions are included on SEA;
• No provisions are included for transboundary impacts.

In addition to these general comments, a number of detailed comments for specific articles were provided.

Parties involved

Members of the working group

Technical secretary: Arend Kolhoff

Further details

Country: Georgia

Last modified: 28 Aug 2014