The Moldovan government should promote the adoption by the Parliament of relevant environmental laws to fully implement EU environmental acquis ensuing from the Association Agreement. New approaches in the development of environmental policy and legislation should be used, including convergence with key principles governing the EU framework legislation. The Action Plan on the implementation of the Aarhus Convention at least until 2025 should be elaborated based on clear methodology analysing the factors, which did not allow the realization of the previous 2011–2015 plan. These are the recommendations formulated by the environmental NGOs Arnika of the Czech Republic and Eco-TIRAS of Moldova.
In a news conference in a IPN, Dr. Natalia Zamfir, lawyer, associate professor at Moldova State University and the leading author of the shadow report on implementation of the Aarhus Convention , said the structure of central environmental authorities should be revised to avoid the overlapping of functions and to make the institutional structure more effective by, in particular, separating the permitting and inspection functions and creating an executive agency for monitoring, information exchange and permitting under Ministry of Environment.
Being also quoted in a press release of the organizations, Natalia Zamfir said a new law on environmental protection should be enacted that introduces an integrated permitting system for installations having significant impact on the environment with emission limit values set directly in the legislation, following the approach of the Industrial Emissions Directive. Best available techniques (BAT) need to be introduced as a basis for permitting.
The organizations plead for creating publicly an accessible online portal with environmental information and related (interconnected) electronic systems of environmental authorities, including a database of polluters, an equivalent of the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR).
To ensure open access to information an efficient enforcement mechanism should be introduced (including sanctions) to prevent public authorities from arbitrarily violating legislation on access to information and on petitioning.
The NGOs also recommended amending the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment and the Law on Strategic Environmental Assessment in such a way so as to enable the public to participate in the early stages of a decision-making process and not only the last stages when it is no longer possible to make any significant changes. The law on state-guaranteed legal aid should be amended in terms of conditions and principles regarding partial or full compensation of qualified legal assistance. The state compensating even a part of the costs of litigation might encourage people to seek legal assistance and bring environmental matters before courts.
