15th Meeting of European Heads of Mining Authorities

The 15th Meeting of Heads European Mining Authorities took place from 30 June to 2 July 2009 in Tallinn, Estonia. In the Meeting participated the President of the State Mining Authority Mr Piotr Litwa and the Director of the Office of Organization Mr Jacek Bielawa.
The main topic of this year’s debate was management of waste in the mining industry.
Papers were presented by mining authorities’ representatives from Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Director Bielawa presented paper on transposition of the directive on extractive waste to the Polish law.
On the second day the participants took part in a technical visit to an open cast of Estonian Oil-Shale in Narva.
In the memorandum of the 15th Meeting the stress was put among others on the need of a more intensive exchange of information and experience in the field of best available techniques and other technical and scientific issues concerning waste between mining authorities.
It was decided that the next Meeting on the topic on effective enforcement of health and safety, environmental and related regulations in the extractive industries will take place in Germany. Further Meetings will be hosted by Poland in 2011 and by Austria in 2012.