Decision on creation of Environment Agency, Inspectorate for Environmental Protection to be published in Moldova's Official Journal

Chisinau, 21 June /MOLDPRES/ - A decision on the setting up, organization and work of the Environment Agency and Inspectorate for Environmental Protection will be published in the Official Journal (Monitorul Oficial) of Moldova on 22 June.  

The Agency will implement documents of public policies and legislation in the environmental protection sector. At the same time, the structure is meant to provide technical support to the Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ministry for substantiating drafts of public policies, draft legislative  and normative acts, for regulating and authorizing the activities with impact on the environment. Also, the Agency will issue to private persons and legal entities permissive acts and will carry out the monitoring of the environment factors’ quality, will manage the sources and information systems in the environment sector and will ensure public’s access to information on environment.   

The Environment Agency will be the main administrative authority which will enforce the new legislation on environment, approximated to the European Union’s norms, provided for in the Association Agreement. The Agency will ensure also the implementation of new environment instruments, such as: the system of assessing the impact of economic activities on the environment, system of strategic environment evaluation, of integrated ecological monitoring, integrated environmental authorization, waste management, integrated environmental information system.

To fulfill the duty of monitoring the environment’s quality, a Reference Environmental Laboratory will work at the Agency, in which the environment quality laboratories of the State Hydrometeorological Service and the ecological investigation laboratories of the Inspectorate for Environmental Protection will be integrated.  

At the same time, the creation of the Inspectorate for Environmental Protection has the goal to optimize the state institutions, through the merger of the State Ecological Inspectorate and Piscicultural Service and, at the same time, to strengthen the institutional capacities in the environmental protection field and use of natural resources.

Subdivisions in charge of assessing the risks and planning controls, monitoring control procedures and evaluating them, monitoring taxes for pollution and internal security, as a unit needed for preventing office abuses, including with corruption aspects, were envisaged at the Inspectorate too.   

(Reporter A. Ciobanu, editor M. Jantovan)