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Environmental Policy Toolkit for SME Greening in EU Eastern Partnership Countries

image of Environmental Policy Toolkit for SME Greening in EU Eastern Partnership Countries

This toolkit, based on existing good practice, aims to help governments in the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) to design and implement key instruments to promote environmental compliance and green business practices among small and medium-sized enterprises. Reducing the environmental impact of SMEs in both manufacturing and services is a key success factor in greening the economy. At the same time, improving environmental performance is a significant business opportunity for SMEs as important suppliers of goods and services. Developed under the EaP GREEN project, this report will be of interest to environmental and economic ministries, as well as business associations and non-governmental and academic institutions in EaP countries.

English

Environmental compliance progress and challenges for SMEs in EaP countries

This chapter looks at the challenges facing EaP countries on greening SMEs, and the progress that has been made so far. It begins with an examination of existing regulatory regimes in EaP countries, highlighting ongoing proposals to move away from uniform application of single-medium permitting. The chapter examines some of the environmental considerations that have been introduced into strategic documents from EaP countries on SME support activities, and highlights survey data on how SMEs are informed about regulatory requirements. The chapter notes that EaP SMEs that do undertake efficiency measures mostly do so for economic reasons. The importance of shifting to new regulatory regimes that lessen enterprises’ regulatory burden and are calibrated based on the level of environmental risk is highlighted. In conjunction with that, policy gaps in EaP countries are explored, in particular around technical and financial support for green practices, and effective communication and information tools.

English

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