On March 2, 2021, the Parliament of Georgia adopted the Law of Georgia "On Environmental Liability" (Law of Georgia "On Environmental Liability" https://matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/5109151?publication=0) (the law entered into force on July 1, 2022). The law was developed on the basis of Article 306 of the "Association Agreement between Georgia and, on the other hand, the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Union and their member states" (ssociation Agreement between Georgia and, on the other hand, the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Union and their member states - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:22014A0830(02)) according to which Georgia is obliged to bring its national legislation closer to the EU legislative acts and international legal instruments specified in Annex XXVI of this agreement. The law mentioned above was prepared based on Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of April 21, 2004, on "Environmental Liability."

The law establishes a new legal system of environmental liability in the country in accordance with the principles of EU legislation based on the "polluter pays" principle. The law's main purpose is to prevent significant damage to the environment (biological diversity, water, land), mitigate the damage caused, and ensure restoration of the damaged environment to its original (pre-damage) state. The Law of Georgia "On Environmental Liability" is the main legal act regulating the field of environmental liability, and together with its by-laws, the law mentioned above will create a complete legal framework that will regulate the imposition of legal responsibility for significant damage to the environment, restoration of the damaged environment to its original state, and other related issues.

As already mentioned above, due to the fact that a completely new system of environmental liability is being created in the country, at this stage, there is a lack of institutional experience related to the implementation of environmental liability in Georgia to fulfil the obligation defined by the law in a timely and qualitative manner. Therefore, along with the formation of the legal basis, it is extremely important to strengthen the capacities of the state agencies, in particular, the capabilities of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture (MEPA), LEPL National Environmental Agency (NEA), and LEPL Environmental Information and Education Centre (EIEC), Department of Environmental Supervision (DES), to efficiently participate in the process of implementing environmental liability, to boost the knowledge of the employees of these agencies about the environmental liability system and its separate provisions (such as assessment of significant damage to the environment, identification, assessment, selection of appropriate remedial measures in case of damage, determination of compensation measures for intermediate losses, selection of the necessary territory, etc.) and about the problematic issues of their application in practice. From this point of view, it is extremely important to provide assistance to the Ministry and its agencies to develop the capacity of its employees, as well as share theoretical and practical knowledge about the implementation mechanisms of the European environmental liability system.

The successful implementation of the environmental liability system is particularly crucial for Georgia, as it is an obligation imposed by the European Union directive. Since the mentioned system implies new approaches, the staff in this direction must acquire appropriate knowledge and know in detail how the environmental liability system works. As this is a challenging task, the Ministry has requested UNDP to provide support and technical assistance through the international expert to prepare the specific chapters for the practical handbook elaborated by the international consultant on biodiversity. These chapters should target the general aspects of the environmental liability system to capacitate the staff of MEPA to detect, classify and assess the cases efficiently. Moreover, the consultant should develop the capacities of MEPA, NEA, DES and EIEC staff members and deepen their knowledge about general principles and EU approaches to the environmental liability system to make them capable assess the environmental damage effectively in the future.