The eighth annual meeting of the Regulatory Environmental Programme Implementation Network (REPIN) in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) was held in Tbilisi on 12-13th June 2006. The meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Georgia, and organised by the OECD/EAP Task Force Secretariat. The meeting gathered about 60 participants, including high and mid level officials representing the Ministries of Environment and their implementation branches from the EECCA region, officials and experts from the OECD countries, the European Commission, EBRD, the Regional Environmental Centres (RECs) for CEE, the Caucasus, Moldova, and the Russian Federation, and non-governmental organizations.

Some of the  taken included:

• Endorsement of the Guiding Principles of the Effective Environmental Permitting Systems
• Agreement to refine the Environmental Policy Implementation Rating and conduct self-assessments;
• Endorsement of the outline for a regional report on trends in modernising environmental regulation and compliance assurance in EECCA;
• Support for the development of the Guidelines on Performance Measurement for Environmental Enforcement Authorities of EECCA;
• Support for the idea and the preliminary list of issues for a High-Level Environmental Policy Event to be held in 2007.
• Support for using the recommendations of the Environment Chapter of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises to promote higher environmental performance by enterprises in EECCA.

Several of these outcomes will contribute directly to the next “Environment for Europe” Ministerial meeting to be held in Belgrade in October 2007.

Besides, this event provided an opportunity to review progress with implementation of the REPIN work programme, share information about relevant in-country activities carried out by the environmental  authorities in EECCA countries and directly communicate with their colleagues from OECD and Central European countries, and with non-governmental stakeholders.
A side event on the reform of compliance assurance in Georgia was held on 14th June.
The Network, which is part of the OECD/EAP Task Force, was formally established in 1999 and has operated in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) since late 2000. REPIN work has helped to revise policies and legislation, to reform environmental institutions and to upgrade the knowledge and skills of environmental officials and experts in EECCA countries. The Network has substantially enlarged its scope of work after the Kiev “Environment for Europe” Ministerial meeting in 2003. Its multi-annual programme covers three main areas: (i) environmental policy instruments; (ii) environmental compliance assurance strategies; and (iii) institutional aspects of compliance assurance.

For more information on the REPIN Network please visit the dedicated web-page.

For more information about the various activities, please contact:

Ms. Angela Bularga
Environment and Globalisation Division
Environment Directorate
OECD
Address: 2, rue André Pascal
75775 Paris Cédex 16, France
tel.: [33] (0)1 - 45-24-98-63
fax: [33] (0)1 - 44-30-61-83