From July 31st – August 3rd travelling four day environment and film art festival „Moving Baltic Sea” will take place in Spīķeri and AB mole, Latvia. The festival offers wide program of events, including from panel discussions about the Baltic Sea’s environment protection and environmental and film creative workshops.

Minister of the Environment Raimonds Vējonis holds a view that Latvia must be genetically modified organisms (GMO) free zone. Considering this, Latvia should be against any GMO product cultivation and trading. Minister of the Environment appeals to encourage development of biological agriculture in Latvia, because we have favorable conditions and biological products are becoming more popular in EU.

On July 9th, minister of the Environment Raimonds Vējonis invited representatives from beverage manufacturers, dealers, waste and packaging managers to discuss deposit system establishment for packaging.

In negotiations with European Parliament EU council has obtained that aviation is included in emission trade system, that provision on establishment of emission reserve for rapidly growing airlines is included in Council’s directive project. European Parliament in Committee of Environment, Public Health and Food Safety voted for amendments that do not anticipate establishment of emission reserve for rapidly growing airlines.

On July 3 -4th the minister of the Environment Raimonds Vējonis participates in informal session of council of EU ministers of Environment in Paris.

Ten years after its adoption, the Parties to the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters have agreed to strengthen environmental democracy within the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) region and to promote its principles worldwide.

The Parties to the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters will hold their third meeting in Riga from 11 to 13 June 2008, marking the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention.

During the seventh Baltic Sea States Summit (Riga, Latvia, 4 June 2008), Baltic 21 submitted to the Heads of Government its report “Reaching a Landmark — Ten years of sub-regional cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region”, and launched the Baltic 21 Anniversary Exhibition.

During 2008, Baltic 21 – the Agenda 21 for the Baltic Sea Region – celebrates a landmark. For ten years, Baltic 21 has been advancing sustainable development by coordinating actions and serving as a forum for cooperation across borders and between stakeholders.

On May 16th, media briefing about successful used nuclear fuel exporting from Salaspils nuclear reactor to Russian Federation took place in the ministry of the Environment.

On April 22, in the session of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Informative notification elaborated by Ministry of the Environment “On Position Nr 3 on European Parliament and Council of Europe directive project for waste, with which it cancels various directives” was accepted.

The Ministry of the Environment invites all environmental journalists to submit their works for competition „Best Environmental Journalist 2008”. The competition will take place for the fifth year and is being organized to evaluate professionalism of environmental journalists and to encourage them to prepare stories and programs about environmental issues.

We invite you to participate in the second International Conference „Environmental Science and Education in Latvia and Europe: Education for Sustainable Development. The conference is organized by the Latvian Council of Environmental Science and Education (ESEC), the Ministry of the Environment, Latvian Environmental Protection Fund Administration and United Nations Development Program Bureau in Latvia.

From March 4 – 6, the Minister of the Environment Raimonds Vējonis is on a business visit in the USA. During the visit he participates in Washington International Renewable Energy Conference in Washington.