I. Reforming the EIA Law

MLRI’s primary input centred on making metal mining more responsible in Armenia, particularly by clarifying the legal obligations of mining companies and making them enforceable. Previously, the mining Project Proposal was not a subject for the state environmental review, the Ministry of Environment could not assess how far the impact of specific activities introduced in the Project Proposal were duly reflected in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report. 

The new EIA Law clearly states that the state environmental expertise shall be implemented based on both the EIA Report and the mining Project Proposal. This is a fundamental achievement, which requires mining companies to have these two documents from the outset.

Through the efforts of MLRI, mining companies will now have to uphold the commitments they make at the initial stage or face legal consequences. Later on, if they decide to make changes in the Project Proposal, they should again proceed with another EIA presenting all changes and organize public hearings in the affected communities.

It is worth mentioning that several elements of the MLRI’s reform proposal were not included in the law. For example, the government did not make these changes retroactively effective. However, these changes would have improved the quality of the binding acts and would have given additional tools to the inspection agencies to protect the right to a healthy environment.

In conclusion, according to the requirements of the EIA Law, Governmental Decrees shall consequently be adopted to develop detailed procedures for the indicated legal amendments. In particular, on the procedure for the state expertise of the environmental impact assessment reports and the organization of public hearings in the process of environmental impact assessment and state environmental expertise shall be further developed by the Ministry of Environment. In pursuit of his accomplishment with regard to the proper implementation of the EIA process, the MLRI launched a new project in 2023 to provide expert support to the Ministry of Environment for the development of the indicated two Governmental Decrees.

II. Drafting two Governmental Decrees

The MLRI’s activities in 2023 were focused on drafting two legal acts deriving from the legal amendments in the Law on EIA adopted in May 2023. In particular, the Government Decree on the Implementation of Public Hearings and the Governmental Decree on the Implementation of Environmental Impact Expertise are drafted and presented to the Ministry of Environment for further processing. Both decrees have strategic importance with respect to the public interest (rights of affected communities to participate in decision-making) and granting of mining licenses (the process of implementation of the state expertise on environmental impact assessment reports). 

As a result of the project, two procedural legal acts are drafted, which regulate the above-mentioned issues deriving from the Law on EIA:

1. “Government Decree on approving the procedure for the examination, making changes or additions to the state examination conclusion, invalidating the state examination conclusion”.

This one was circulated through all the phases of the reviewing within the different government bodies and is currently placed on the unified website for publication of legal acts’ drafts for public discussions and collecting opinions. https://www.e-draft.am/en/projects/6336/about 

There are many positive principal amendments insisted by the MLRI:

a) the mining Project Proposal shall be introduced for the expertise together with the EIA Report. This blocks the discretion of the companies to change the mining project skipping the obligation to implement the new environmental impact assessment and public hearings on it.

b) The EIA report for companies should be prepared only by licensed organizations, in accordance with the standards, which subsequently shall be established by the Armenian government. 

c) The indicated Decree obliges corresponding state bodies to provide either a “professional and expert conclusion” or “justified opinion” on the appeared environmental issues.  

d) Rely on scientifically based assessments when carrying out state environmental expertise. It increases the predictability of actions of the experts and specialists involved in the process of environmental impact assessment and expertise and sharply reduces the potential for arbitrary decisions by the Ministry of Environment when doing the Expertise, as they need to justify the scientific validity of the data presented and the conclusions they make.

e) The requirement is to be guided only based on the official data when reviewing the EIA Report and Project Proposal. In order to verify the reliability of the information introduced in the EIA Reports and the Project Proposal, now is required that the experts of the Ministry of Environment shall base only on the official data presented by the state cadasters, registers, data developed by the state administrative system, as well as the data provided by the territorial administration and local self-government bodies when doing the Expertise.

f) Due to the need for a specific area of expertise, the Ministry of Environment can involve a relevant expert or specialist in the examination process, in accordance with the new regulations of the EIA Law.

In line with the advisable legal amendments described above, some undesirable provisions still remain. Hence, the director of MLRI presented its “special opinion” to the system of state environmental expertise, which was submitted to the Ministry of Environment and circulated throughout of other ministries. This is important to emphasize the position and aspiration of the MLRI to have better legal regulations and administrative decision-making systems.

2.“Government Decree on the content of public awareness and notification of public hearings, the procedure of public hearings, the submission of opinions, observations and recommendations of the interested public in the process of environmental impact assessment and expertise, the procedure and deadlines for granting preliminary consent or disagreement by local self-government bodies”.

This legal act was adopted by the Government on 28 December 2023. https://www.arlis.am/DocumentView.aspx?docid=188064    

This document has already been adopted by the Government and became part of the legal system regulating important aspects of EIA.

The new decree reflects the changes made in the EIA Law:

a) After the first public hearing, the Community Council shall give the so-called “preliminary consent” for the implementation of the intended project in their administrative area. If the decision is negative, the project development shall stop.

b) people and organizations that did not have the opportunity to be present at the place of public hearing can also submit comments and suggestions. If the author of the comment/suggestion is not present at the public hearing, the answer is presented by the mechanism of feedback. 

c) The opinions, remarks and recommendations presented during the public hearing must be taken into account. In case of non-consideration, valid reasons shall be given.

d) The Ministry of Environment ensures the posting of the minutes of the public hearing, photographs or video recordings, as well as the opinions, comments and suggestions of the interested public on its official website.

However, there are also weak points in this regulation, which jeopardizes the ability of the community to grant informed consent. As the communities can veto the implementation of the project, the companies shall not be obliged to spend much money without having guarantees that the community will not oppose it. This position is vulnerable, because the communities will not have the opportunity to be fully informed about the impacts of the project, which will restrict their ability to express informed and well-justified positions.

To sum up, the two Government Decrees draft papers were edited by the Ministry of Environment after submitting them by the MLRI. In a nutshell, the amendments of EIA Law and consequent Government Decrees are quite impactful, as they addressed several key issues highlighted by civil society and environmentalists for a very long time. Even though some loopholes are left in the EIA Law and connected decrees, the amendments significantly restrict the space of unsubstantiated mining permits and create instruments to keep companies responsible for implementing all the requirements defined by the Project Proposal in the lifetime of the mine. The amendments enlarge the opportunities for people to participate in the public hearings remotely and follow up for feedback on their position on environmentally sound issues of mining projects.