ARMENIA PLANS TO IMPROVE ITS ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION IN 2007

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Feb 27 2007

YEREVAN, February 26. /ARKA/. Armenia plans to improve its
environmental legislation in 2007 to ensure proper environment
protection in the country, the press service of Armenia’s Ecology
Ministry reported.

In particular, amendments are to be made to the Code of administrative
offences to provide for the responsibility for failure to observe
the statutory provisions in the ecology sphere.

"This will allow us establishing limits of responsibility and applying
adequate countermeasures if the statutory requirements on ecology
are not observed to minimize the negative impact on the ecology,"
the press service of the Ministry reported.

The Law on implementation of self-control and production control to
ensure fulfillment of statutory requirements on ecology is expected
to be passed.

The press service of the Ecology Ministry pointed out that the
international agreements and conventions ratified by Armenia state the
importance of routine monitoring and environmental impact evaluation
by economic entities themselves. The new law is to regulate the
processes, to set competence and responsibility of counterparts and
establish the production output limits and criteria for application
of self-monitoring.

The Law will establish a procedure to monitor the daily norm of
effluents and the dynamics of their change, as well as responsibility
for maintaining mandatory control over the effluents and waste
disposal. The Law will also stipulate the responsibility for
environmental pollution.