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At the sitting held on November 12, the RA NA Standing Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Environment Protection debated in the first reading the RA Law on Mercury and the legislative initiative envisaging Addendum to the Code on Lithosphere.

The Government proposes to regulate the relations related to mercury, its compounds, mercury waste and the use of products with mercury additives. The purpose of the draft law submitted for debate of the Committee is also to protect human health and the environment from man-made emissions and excretions of mercury and mercury compounds.

The RA Deputy Minister of Environment Gayane Gabrielyan has noted that the necessity to develop the draft stems from the commitments undertaken by Armenia under the Minamata Convention on Mercury ratified in 2017. The draft establishes the provisions related to the study of mercury. After the adoption of law, the order of the export of mercury from the RA will be established by the decisions of the Government during six months, as well as the list of products with mercury additives prohibited for the import.

The parliamentarians endorsed the legislative initiative.