The bilateral meeting on the discussion of the findings of the draft report “Environmental liability provisions in Armenia: Damage prevention and assessment” took place virtually on 16 November 2023.
Meeting objectives, expected outputs and outcomes
The main objective of this meeting was to present and discuss the findings of the draft report “Environmental liability provisions in Armenia: Damage prevention and assessment” as well as the next steps in its finalisation.
The author of the report presented the findings. The experts from the Ministry of Environment and other relevant government agencies from Armenia were invited to provide information on development of environmental liability legislation in the country and any last comments on the report.
Participants
Participants included officials from Armenia’s Ministry of Environment and other relevant government institutions and the OECD Secretariat.
Background
As part of the EU-funded EU4Environment Action project, the OECD published a report “The environmental compliance assurance system in Armenia: Current situation and recommendations” in 2022. The report noted that Armenia lacks an environmental liability regime for environmental damage even though approximation of the EU Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) is foreseen by Armenia’s Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the EU.
The OECD prepared a draft report on “Environmental liability provisions in Armenia: Damage prevention and assessment” with the goal of assisting the government of Armenia with developing legal environmental liability provisions and approximating the ELD. It was based on guidance from the Ministry of Environment of Armenia, which selected the topic of focus. This report assesses Armenia’s legislation and methodologies relating to environmental liability and provides recommendations on how they could be improved to better align with the requirements of the ELD and the polluter-pays principle, specifically as regards prevention and assessment of environmental damage.
Presentation slides:
The current state of the Environmental Liability system in Armenia and upcoming plans (Mery Harutyunyan, Ministry of Environment of Armenia)
Environmental Liability Provisions in Armenia – damage prevention and assessment (Colin Mackie, University of Leeds, UK)