Environment Ministry developed a draft law on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Expertise and published it on the joint platform for publishing draft legal acts (www.e-draft.am). On July 8, 2021, the meeting of Public Council under RA Minister of Environment was held, where Minister Romanos Petrosyan asked the council stakeholders and representatives of environmental NGOs to submit their proposals in writing within 10 days, which will be duly discussed and, if necessary, included in the new Law on Environmental Impact Assessment and Expertise.
Several NGOs, including EcoLur Informational NGO, have submitted their proposals to the ministry on the draft law. However, no proposal was included in the draft law published on www.e-draft.am. It should be noted that the Ministry did not organize any discussion on the proposals, nor did it substantiate the grounds for the rejection of the proposals in writing, which was necessary at least to emphasize the Ministry's desire to work with the members of Public Council.
On March 2, 2022, Vice President of EcoLur Informational NGO Victoria Burnazyan uploaded the proposals made by "EcoLur" on www.e-draft.am website. These comments should be visible on the website within 2 days. However, they are not visible yet, the system shows they are in the moderation stage. Meanwhile, the discussion of the draft law ended on March 5. There are only 2 proposals made by one person, which were accepted by Environment Ministry, which comes to prove the public discussions of the draft laws through this website bear a formal nature.
"EcoLur" submitted the following proposals to Environment Ministry:
1. To establish clear and imperative provisions for the recognition of EIA conclusion as invalid in RA Law on Environmental Impact Assessment and Expertise.
2. To clearly define the terms "ecological factors" or "new ecological factors" in RA Law on Environmental Impact Assessment and Expertise.
3. Replace the term “affected community” with the term “affected settlement or settlements” in RA Law on Environmental Impact Assessment and Expertise.
4. Include a provision in the draft law on the elaboration of the draft decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia on the methodology of defining the affected settlements and its submission to the Government of the Republic of Armenia for approval.
5. To prescribe in Article 9 of the Law a provision on the procedure for obtaining opinions from state and local self-government bodies.
March 18, 2022 at 10:06