We Appeal to The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, the Government of Georgia, the Parliament of Georgia and the Prime Minister

On 29 September at the Parliament plenary meeting, with the second hearing the law on “Environmental Protection Liability” and accompanying law packages were discussed and passed. which undoubtedly is a positive event.

However, according to the information received from the Parliament, the third – editorial hearing is scheduled for December, which means that the Parliament will be voting on passing the law and accompanying changes with the new deputies, which are directly related to improving the air quality in Rustavi.

Let us remind you, that the relevant decision-makers gave promise to group of civil activists “Gavigudet” that the changes would be made before the end of the spring session. Unfortunately, this condition was not accomplished, which led us to the July 18, 2020 protest.

At the same time, we think that it was possible to initiate changes to the existing laws (Law on Environmental Protection, Law on Ambient Air Protection, General Administrative Code of Georgia) and to discuss them in the Parliament with Accelerated procedure. Unfortunately, this did not happen and we got the impression that the process of changing the existing laws is artificially bound to the initiation and discussion of the Law on Environmental protection Liability in order to prolong the process.

It’s very unfortunate that the second condition, which was mentioned several times at the meetings, was violated. This condition intended that current Parliament should have voted for these changes. Postponing this process to December means that these issues will have to be reexplained and need to gain their support, while voting on editorial changes on an issue directly affecting the lives and health of up to 130,000 people could take place during at September plenary session. Now, decision-makers say the reason for postponing the issue until December is that according to the rules of the Parliament of Georgia, the Parliament stops working one month before the end of the elections.

Unfortunately, they don’t want to realize how 130,000 people are poisoned every day in Rustavi and what it actually costs us to have an unconscientious production; That even the slightest trust that the public could have in them is already lost. And also, they don’t give civil society and activists the real chance of cooperation. It’s also unfortunate that they didn’t use the chance to make the solution of the Rustavi problem a remarkable case of cooperation between the public and civil sector.

While there is no public record of the two conditions mentioned above, however, the public well remembers the numerous promises of Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia. He promised that the process would not be delayed in time and this legislative initiative would be passed as soon as possible. Please see the statement made by the Prime Minister on August 17 with video.

Based on above mentioned, the group of civil activists “Gavigudet” demands to fulfill promises and the Parliament of Georgia organize additional session before election in accordance with Article 88, Paragraph 5 and Article 82 of the rules of the Parliament of Georgia to consider passing the initiated package with the third hearing.