Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia

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Nino Tandilashvili meets the Delegation of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

 The First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mrs. Nino Tandilashvili, hosted the Delegation of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The Head of Development Cooperation of the Swedish Embassy in Georgia, the Deputy Head of Mission of the Kingdom of Sweden to Georgia, Mr. Erik Illes, and the Head of the Environmental Program of the Swedish Embassy in Georgia, Mrs. Khatuna Zaldastanishvili, attended the meeting.
During the meeting, the conversation touched upon the current projects and priority areas for future cooperation, including strengthening institutional capacities for air quality management and control and increasing public awareness. The parties planned an active cooperation with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency for the coming year.

 Mrs. Nino Tandilashvili emphasized the importance of the Swedish Government's continuous support in implementing the environmental reforms in Georgia.

"As you are aware, improving air quality is one of the top priorities of the Government of Georgia. Therefore, considering European experience, we have implemented significant reforms in several directions - the regulatory legal framework has been improved, industrial activity supervision has been tightened, and sanctions were imposed for violating environmental permit conditions, including conducting continuous self-monitoring of industrial companies. Moreover, fuel quality should comply with the Euro 5 standard, and road control of vehicle emissions is in progress.  In 2015, only one automatic air monitoring station was functioning in Georgia, and now there are nine automatic and two mobile stations. To improve the ambient air quality, Georgia plans to further expand the monitoring network following the air quality monitoring network development plan, which was developed within the framework of the SIDA/UNDP project, with the active involvement of experienced European experts.  With the support of the European Union and the project "Save Nature - Georgia", it is planned to completely cover the country with monitoring stations by 2024-2025 in compliance with EU standards. We hope our collaboration will develop and yield even better results." said Mrs. Nino Tandilashvili.

As mentioned the activities carried out by the Government of Georgia in the environmental area were positively evaluated in the European Union report.

The program " Save the Nature - Georgia 2021-2024" has been successfully running since 2021 within the framework of the grant agreement signed by the Government of Georgia and the Government of Sweden. Within the project, with the support of the International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) of the Swedish Government, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia is carrying out several important activities.