The objective of Environment Management and Audit System (EMAS), as the instrument of significant, continuous consumption and production and continuous industry policy, is to promote consistent improvement of organization achievement in the field of environment, by creating and implementing environment management systems in the organizations, systematically, objectively and regularly assessing results of operations of such systems, providing information on achievements in the area of environment, and engaging in an open dialogue with the public and other stakeholders, actively involving employees of the organizations in development of environment management systems and providing appropriate training.
The agency is provided with the status of a recognized accreditation institution in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the voluntary participation by organizations in a Community eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS). The last assessment took place in May 2023. The evaluation results were confirmed at the FALB meeting on April 18, 2024. The next assessment is scheduled for 2026..
Pursuant to Environment Protection Law, the elements required for registration in the environment management and audit system are inspected and approved by an accredited environment verifier. Latvian National Accreditation Bureau LATAK state agency. in the order set forth by the Cabinet of Ministers conducts accreditation of environment verifiers and monitors their activities, as well as establishes and maintains register of environment verifiers.
Any individual or legal entity may become an environment verifier, if such entity possesses corresponding qualification in the area of environment and knowledge on EMAS, which is verified by an accreditation certificate. Environment verifier must be independent; it may not be related to the organization to be audited.
LVS EN ISO/IEC 17011 and LVS EN ISO/IEC 17021 standard, EMAS Regulation, Guidelines of Forum of Accreditation and Licensing Bodies (FALB) set forth in the Article 30 of EMAS Regulation, the applicable EA and IAF documents, as well as other applicable normative enactments are applied in the assessment process of environment verifiers in Latvian National accreditation system.
LATAK has developed the following documents for environment verifiers:
- Accreditation procedure for environment management and audit system (EMAS) verifiers
- Surveillance procedure for environment management and audit system (EMAS) verifiers accredited in another member state of the European Union
- Documents applicable in accreditation of environment management and e\audit system (EMAS) verifiers D.044
The employee of LATAK responsible for EMAS issues is Martins Ozolins, Deputy director of LATAK.