Greening the ENP Georgia project implemented with support DG Environment, in cooperation with HBf and WWF EPO office

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Greening the ENP Georgia projectimplemented
with support DG Environment, in cooperation with
HBf and WWF EPO office

• Manana Kochladze
• Kety Gujaraidze
• November 2006

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ENP Process in Georgia

• In June 2004 the three South Caucasus countries -
  Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, were included in
  Wider Neighbourhood Initiative of the EU.
• In March 2005 EU presented the country report and
  recommendations for Action Plan preparation
• In October 2006 the EU and Georgian
  representatives signed government and EC the AP
  for 2007-2013 and defined priorities of
  cooperation.

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Action Plan

• Action Plan encourages fulfillment of
  Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation and
  Georgias future integration in Europes economic
  and social structures. Implementation of the AP
  should significantly facilitate the process of
  harmonization of Georgian legislation, norms and
  standards with those of the EU and this in
  itself, creates foundation for economic
  integration, growth of trade, investments and
  economy.

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Greening the Action Plan

• Georgian government nor EC formally established
  the procedures of public participation at the
  onset of the elaboration of the plan.
• The governmental commission to develop Action
  Plan created a council of experts, which included
  several public representatives.
• In parallel, Georgian civil society
  representatives formed a coalition of NGOs to
  provide recommendations for Action Plan. The
  coalition was supported by Heinrich Boll
  Foundation, Eurasia Foundation and Open Society
  Georgia Foundation.
• After working for several months about 70 NGOs
  presented recommendations concerning the AP,
  which the Georgian government later called an
  alternative action plan.
• Future lobby on different issues of alternative
  action plan was undertaken on national and
  international level
• Significant part of the recommendations presented
  by NGOs were taken into consideration in the
  final version of the AP.
• Green Alternative actively participated in
  process and lead elaboration of recommendations
  in Sustainable development, Environmental
  Protection and Poverty Reduction part

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• Within the frame of NGO coalition work GA
  actively continue to assess the different drafts
  of the Action plan and submitted comments to
  Government and EC representatives
• To facilitate more understanding about challenges
  and trends of ENP implementation in Georgia was
  organized number of workshops for Georgian
  Environmental groups with support of Heinrich
  Boell foundation Caucasus Office.
• The first workshop overview EU institutions and
  ENP process, as well as challenges its
  implementation. During the Workshop was decided
  to focus Greening the ENP Georgia Project
  implementation to assess the ongoing situation
  in Environmental governance and cases to be
  explored, to have clear benchmark for the future
  process
• follow up workshops was dedicated to detail
  reviews of the research and case studies that
  has been done by Green Alternative and experts
  hired.
• As a result the report Environmental Governance
  in Georgia and How Can the EU Contribute to Its
  Strengthening was prepared
• In parallel was analyzed the High Level Group
  Report on TENs enlargement and presented
  possibilities for public participation. As a
  result number of Georgian Groups developed
  specific comments to commission with regards of
  the EU with support of Green Alternative
• Use different media opportunity to highlight
  importance of Georgia -EU action plan and its
  coherence with different existing plans in
  Georgia and vice versa (e.g. EBRD Country
  Strategy Comments)
• Together with number of foundations HBf, Eurasia
  and OSI, GA representative takes the part in
  board of ENP newsletter that is prepared in
  Georgian and English and address acute issues of
  ENP implementation.

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Environmental Governance in Georgia and How Can
the EU Contribute to Its Strengthening

• To conduct research was used the seven elements
  of environmental governance defined in the joint
  report drawn up by four international
  organizations in 2003 United Nations Development
  Program, United Nations Environment Program,
  World Bank and World Resources Institute.
• Those elements are
• legislation and institutional setting,
• participation right,
• distribution of competences,
• transparency and accountability,
• property rights,
• market and finances
• science and risk.

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• The report identifies two stages in the
  development of environmental governance system in
  Georgia (i) 90-ies and the period before the
  2003 Rose Revolution and (ii) the period after
  the Rose Revolution up until now.
• During the first period of development of
  environmental governance the elements of new
  environmental governance system were formed after
  the collapse of the Soviet system. Institutions
  and legislation were created that more or less
  included the main principles of good
  environmental governance transparency,
  participation and accountability.
• After the revolution development of
  environmental governance characterized with
  frequent institutional and legislative changes
  that are directly related to the governments
  drive towards complete liberalization and
  deregulation of economy and the desire to
  increase the state budget incomes with all means
  (including more exploitation of natural resources
  and changing the ownership status).
• These changes were not made in a transparent way
  and in consultation with the stakeholders. As a
  result of these changes the opportunities for
  public to be informed and to participate in the
  decision-making were even more limited. Moreover,
  in parallel to limiting the access to information
  and public participation, these changes also
  limited the access to justice.

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EU-Georgia AP and Env. governance What needs to
be done

• Periodic evaluation of countrys environmental
  governance and the progress made towards
  achieving the goals of the ENP in environmental
  governance especially in legislation
  approximation field.
• It is necessary to create open and transparent
  mechanisms of public participation in the format
  of structured consultation with EC and the
  Georgian government, this should be done during
  the elaboration, implementation and monitoring of
  the activities indicated in the Action Plan and
  ENPI.
• Guaranteeing public participation and
  organization of public meetings of disputable
  issues are necessary for the implementation of
  the AP. The particular attention must be paid to
  effective expenditure, direct benefits for the
  population of the country and minimal damage to
  environment and the pubic.
• Evaluation of the implementation of the AP must
  be based on extensive consultation process so
  that subjective, or unrealistic evaluations
  caused by the lack of information can be avoided.

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• Projects and programs implemented with the
  assistance of EU (both through ENPI and EIB) must
  unconditionally comply with the environmental
  policy requirements and standards of EU,
  especially in the spheres of energy and
  transport
• Horizontal instruments existing in EU must become
  integral parts of the AP implementation.
• Any program must be preceded by strategic
  environmental assessment, not to mention the
  necessity of integrated social and environmental
  assessment at the project level.
• EC should have an administrative resource, which
  will assist Georgian government in planning and
  implementation of specific projects in accordance
  to the directives of EU.
• As the infrastructural programs are usually
  implemented faster than environmental programs,
  it is necessary to avoid negative impact both on
  the existing and planned protected areas, for
  example, on the protected areas included in the
  Emerald Network (which is an analogue of Natura
  2000) and the areas protected under Ramsar
  Convention.
• Due to the close interrelationship between
  poverty and environmental governance, we believe
  that Based on public consensus, the projects
  must be identified within the AP that would first
  of all satisfy the interests of the local
  communities based on the principles of
  sustainable development.
• A balance should be established between
  mega-projects and small-scale projects directed
  at specific groups
• EC should pay more attention to monitoring of
  Georgias compliance to international
  conventions, including Aarhus Convention.

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Future plans

• Participate and monitoring process of elaboration
  time table and detailed action plan for AP
• Political dialogue between the government, MPs
  and civil society around the issues raised within
  the report, as well as other fields
• Main topics forestry, water, infrastructure,
  energy, mining and natural disaster management
• Monitoring implementation of ENP AP (by EU,
  Governments and IFIs) in 2007-2008
• Foster public participation in decision-making
  with regards of ENP AP