The legislative framework regarding air quality and industrial pollution emissions will be amended. Authorities aim to bring in line national legislative framework with the commitments issued in the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union.
During a presentation event of the bill, Maria Nagornîi, the head of the pollution prevention and environmental assessment department within the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, said that the term for enacting the law is 3 to 10 years. "At this moment, we are engaged in an active development process of the draft law, which was launched in March, when international experts shared with us the experience of EU countries. Subsequently, the elaboration process was initiated and the ministry issued an order to create a task group responsible for drafting the bill", said Maria Nagornîi.
The MADRM official said that, if enacted, the new law will establish monitoring and pre-emmision requirements for economic agents. Economic activity will be strictly controlled by environmental authorities. "This bill does not come as a barrier to economic agents. It helps them improve their activity. The economic agents have to renew their equipment in order to reduce the polluting emissions and, consequently, we will have clean air and better water quality, which will improve the health of the population", said Maria Nagornîi.
Rodica Iordanov, executive director of the non-governmental organization ECO Contact, a partner of the MADRM in the elaboration of environmental policies, said that the law will change a lot in the environmental quality management system. "We are not just talking about air, but about all the components of the environment: water and soil. The economic agents will be able to adjust their activity monitoring system and the law will bring a new approach to the environmental permit granting and control systems", said Rodica Iordanov.
According to her, economic agents will only apply for environmental permits once, for all components - air, water and waste. "The economic agent will have no reason to repeatedly request authorizations and will have the opportunity to extend his authorization without administrative and financial barriers," said Rodica Iordanov.
