Practical guidance on reforming legal and institutional structures with regard to the application of the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment ENG/RUS
This practical guidance aims to assist countries of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus in their legislative reforms towards establishing appropriate legal and institutional frameworks to implement the provisions of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (Protocol on SEA) to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention). It provides guidance for the implementation of the obligations under the Protocol on SEA, illustrates good practice and provides ideas for designing effective legislative and institutional solutions. The guidance may also be of use to other countries within and beyond the ECE region that plan to join the Protocol on SEA and are in the process of establishing and reforming their national legal and institutional frameworks to implement the Protocol.
The guidance has been prepared as a tool to facilitate legislative reforms undertaken by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine with the assistance provided by the ECE secretariat to the Convention and the Protocol within the EU funded programme Greening Economies in the Eastern Neighbourhood (EaP GREEN). It draws heavily on the hitherto experience in this respect, in particular with regard to addressing the legislative dilemmas faced by law drafters in the countries benefiting from the EaP GREEN Programme.