The Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Committee held the meeting with the civil organizations and NGOs to discuss the bill on Environmental Responsibility.

According to the Chair, Nino Tsilosani, the positions and recommendations of the environmental protectors are important for the Committee to be shared in the bill.

The Committee was assigned by the Bureau as a mandatory considerer along with four more Committees.

As N. Tsilosani underlined, it was a highly expected bill as it is to on a legal level regulate the prevention, mitigation and elimination of the damage to the environment, and now, it is paramount to timely consider and adopt the bill.

The Committee is aspired to prevent protraction of the consideration of the bill.

She briefly introduced the key principles of the legal initiative noting that they derive from the EU directives and mostly from the needs existing in the country. It aims at the legal regulation of environmental protection issues. The bill establishes a solid legal basis not only for the companies undertaking the wide-scale works but for all enterprises to, in case of the significant damage to the environment, ensure due remediation measures and create the solid financial guarantees to, in a short-term eliminate the damage.

At that, one of the key objectives of the bill implies the legal regulation of the prevention and mitigation of the damage, which is not envisaged under the current law.

The representatives of the civil organizations and NGOs expressed their positions and proposals. The meeting was attended by the representative of the Public Defender, also expressing the position of the PD Office, giving the positive assessment to the bill since the PD Office is constantly attracting the direction of the society to the environmental problems hoping for the bill will be oriented mostly on prevention and then elimination of the damage.

“It is the bill of utmost importance we all were expecting, including the civil sector and all of them caring for the environment. The bill is revolutionary and regulates the facts of potential damage to the environment by the private sector, its prevention and elimination, establishes a certain financial securement for the activities that may carry a high risk, and finally, regulates the disposal of the sums accumulated under this program in the environmental sphere. Let me reiterate that the bill is crucial and we all do our best to timely consider the bill and ensure its enactment as it establishes higher environmental protection standards”, - N. Tsilosani stated.