On March 15, 2016, the authorized representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights issued a Protocol about administrative violations committed by the director of the department of environmental safety and waste management of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine Yevheniy Fedorenko, in particular administrative violations under Art. 212-3 of the Code of Ukraine on administrative violations – the failure to reply to a request for information.
The violation lies in the failure to provide answer to repeated information request of EPL # 705 of 19 November 2016, in which we ask the following:
– information on the number of conclusions of state environmental expertise issued by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine in 2012, 2013, 2014 respectively, and in the period from 1 January to 30 September 2015.
– to publish all conclusions of state environmental expertise issued by the Ministry of Environment in 2015 including expert assessments.
Earlier EPL addressed the Ministry with the same request but the Ministry of Environmental informed that reported that the information regarding published conclusions of the state environmental expertise for the requested period is posted on the official website of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine at the link http://www.menr.gov.ua/expertyza/vysnovky . This response is not only considered unlawful refusal, but also contains false information as the lack of requested conclusions on the website of the Ministry of Environment was the cause of the appeal.
It should be noted that after EPL’s request, the conclusions were posted on the website , but in order to find out whether Ukrainian Ministry of Environment is diligent about its duty to publish the conclusions of state environmental expertise on the website, as provided in paragraph 3 of the Action Plan to implement the decisions of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention III / 6f, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 1628-r dated 27.12.2008 and n. 2 h. 1 tbsp. 15 Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information”, EPL is still waiting for a written response to the request of 19 November 2015.
To remind, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources started publishing conclusions of state environmental expertise executing the court decision on the claim of EPL. More information about this lawsuit can be found at the link on EPL’s web-site at http://www.epl.org.ua/law/spravy/dostup-do-informatsii/383-opublikuvannia-vysnovkiv-derzhavnoi-ekolohichnoi-ekspertyzy-na-veb-saiti-minpryrody .
For further information please contacts:
Marta Pankevych, EPL lawyer
Tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
Email: office@epl.org.ua; m.pankevych@epl.org.ua
