The start-up workshop is organized by the Ministry of Environment Protection of Georgia and UNECE in the framework of the Espoo Convention capacity building and technical advice programme aiming to support Georgia in strengthening its national capacity to integrate EIA and SEA procedures into national legal, regulatory and administrative frameworks in order to join the Espoo Convention and its Protocol on SEA. 

The aim of the workshop is to initiate drafting new legislation on EIA and SEA and developing recommendations to the Government of Georgia on how to fully comply with the Convention and the Protocol. Representatives of relevant Ministries, local authorities, members of the Parliament and other stakeholders, such as NGOs, consultants, private sector representatives are invited to take part at the start-up workshop.

The participants of the workshop will get familiar with:

• Existing European practice in developing EIA and SEA legislation;
• Results of the gap analysis of the national legislation related to implementation of the Convention and the Protocol;
• Findings of the UNECE guidance on enhancing consistency between the Convention and the environmental impact assessment within the framework of State ecological expertise in countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

They will further be invited to provide inputs for the draft outline of the law on EIA and SEA developed by a team of national and international consultants in Cooperation with the Ministry of Environment protection of Georgia.

The project is funded by the European Commission through the four year Programme ‘Greening Economies in the European Neighborhood’ (EaP GREEN).