I had been to the city of Konya before. It’s a short high speed train journey from Ankara. The event was a two day event and was an opportunity to provide detailed information to the MoEUCC, Provincial Directorate staff who will be and are currently responsible for most of the environment & waste permit inspections in Turkiye.
From a project perspective we were also really interested to get their feedback on the proposed legislation and inspection guidance. They would be the frontline implementers of this new regulation so it was really important to ensure they understood their role and responsibility but that they had an opportunity to discuss this with the Ministry and the project team and get any clarifications as was needed.
The provincial directorate staff were a really excellent group and as we expected their feedback and requests for clarifications was really insightful. They made some really good suggestions on the guideline and very quickly grasped the concept of the new legislation and how it would affect them in their job roles.
As a project team we have tried very hard to ensure that the implementation modality of the End of Waste Regulations mirrors the modality, as fare as practically and legally possible, the current permitting and licensing system operated by the Ministry.
As far as the implementation model is concerned the role of the Provincial Directorate staff exactly mirrors their role in the current licensing and permitting system. There is a pre application inspection followed by a series of compliance inspection.
It was really good to have a workshop session dedicated to the Ministry and the Provincial Directorate staff. Having said this many of the Ministry and Provincial Directorate Staff have attended the previous private sector workshops and provided valuable input on each occasion.
It was good to have the lawmakers and regulators in the one room as we were able to really drill down into the technical aspects of the implementation from the Government perspective and really understand if the proposed EU regulation, as transposed into Turkish regulation, and the implementation modality was appropriate for Turkiye. I am glad to say that the consensus of opinion was overwhelmingly that it was.
