The organization “Young Barristers” respondsto the position and remarks made by a significant part of the citizens regarding the enforcement of the "Waste Management Code" adopted on January 15, 2015, which concerns the appropriateness of the amount of fines for violation of law and addresses the Parliament of Georgia with the recommendation proposal, to made distinct approaches to the problematic issues and responses.

According to statement of lawyer of the organization – JabaSirabidze, the implemented legislative changes towards environmental protection sense, is a big step forward, despite the fact that it does not regulates gas emissions into the atmosphere and other environmental pollution, which are the main problems of the capital and the industrial cities. The state has a lot of work to be done yet in the direction of the environmental protection, however, before the introduction of new regulations, it is important to open the discussion and discuss of the application of the regulations have been adopted already. In particular, how reasonable is the "fines policy" prescribed by law, which is so high that in many cases is equal to pensions and living wage.

The organization estimates, that it is important to review the penalties for individuals for the pollution of the environment with municipal waste and reduce them according to the social condition of the society. Debatable whether the penalties prescribed by the state for the individual is equalto thesubsistence minimumis acceptable. In our opinion, rational reduction of fines should be done, so to be considered as a public interest, as well as the minimum wage. The penalty imposed, should be in accordance with the proportion of the minimum subsistence level.

According to evaluation of the “Young Barristers”, for such matters regulated by the “Waste Management Code”,such as the amount of fines for 2 kg of municipal waste for environmental pollution, which is 80, 100, 120 and 150 GEL, in line with the social situation of citizens is high. Road transport vehicle or public transport from the municipal waste and pollution penalty imposed is 120 GEL, which, for citizens with a certain social status is also a fairly high amount.

For more information: according to National Statistics Office of Georgia, for the working-age men in 2014 Subsistence minimum averaged 154.5 GEL minimum, while the state pension is only 150 GEL and persons under the poverty line, by the information of GeoStatentire population equals to 9.7 percent.