Digest of European integration processes in Ukraine in the field of environmental protection April 2025

In this digest, we aim to highlight key aspects of the transposition of the EU acquis in the field of environmental protection and climate policy within the framework of bilateral negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. We have analyzed regulatory and legal acts aimed at harmonizing the national legislation with European standards, and also highlighted achievements, current challenges and promising directions for further improvement of Ukraine’s environmental policy and legislation in the process of their approximation to the EU requirements.

Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses to Improve Liability for Offenses in the Field of Waste Management” dated 17/04/2025

The draft law was developed in accordance with the European environmental safety standards envisaged by the following documents:

Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives;

Directive 1999/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste;

Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated approach to pollution prevention and control).

According to the explanatory note, the adoption of the draft law will contribute to the implementation of the norms of the European integration Law of Ukraine “On Waste Management”, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on June 20, 2022 as part of implementing the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The draft law was developed to prevent administrative offenses in the area of waste management and create a legal mechanism for ensuring administrative responsibility in accordance with the European environmental safety standards.

The draft law proposes to amend the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, namely to strengthen liability by increasing the amount of fines for the following violations:

• damage, littering and pollution of agricultural and other lands and soils,

• water pollution and depletion,

• pollution of the internal waters and/or territorial sea of Ukraine,

• forest damage caused by wastewater, chemical and radioactive substances, oil and oil products, waste;

• littering of forests with waste;

• performing waste processing operations without an appropriate permit or failure to comply with the conditions of a permit for carrying out waste processing operations;

• violation of the rules for keeping records of waste and/or submitting reports in the field of waste management;

• concealment, distortion of data or refusal to provide complete and reliable information upon requests from officials and appeals from citizens and their associations regarding safety of waste generation and management, including on emergency waste discharges and their consequences;

• mixing or burying of waste for which there is an appropriate technology in Ukraine, without a special permit;

• violation of waste transfer requirements;

• violation of established rules and operating conditions of waste processing facilities;

• landfilling of untreated waste;

• concealment of excessive volumes of waste processing and disposal.

In addition, it is proposed to supplement the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses with new articles that envisage liability for the following violations:

• violation of the established procedure for submitting a waste declaration or failure to submit such a declaration”;

• failure to take measures or inaction to eliminate unauthorized landfills;

• failure to take measures to develop and/or approve a waste management plan.

Administrative liability in the waste management sector is aimed not only at bringing to justice persons guilty of violating the requirements established by the legislation in the area of waste management, but also at preventing violations of the legislation in this area in the future. However, it is worth noting that even taking into account the increase in the amount of fines, its maximum amount is 300 untaxed minimum incomes of citizens, which as of May 2025 is 5100 UAH, or a little more than 100 euros. In contrast, in European countries, fines in this area for business entities can reach tens of thousands of euros.

For example, in Germany, where the waste management system is one of the best in Europe, there are serious sanctions for violators. Fines here are significant and can reach 100,000 euros if it is an issue of improper disposal of hazardous waste or repeated violations. For oversized waste thrown along the road, the violator will pay more than 500 euros. Even a cigarette butt thrown away in an unauthorized place will cost residents of European countries more than in Ukraine violators will pay for damaging forest through contaminating it with wastewater, chemical and radioactive substances, oil and oil products, waste, flooding, drainage, and other types of harmful effects that cause its drying out or destruction.

As we can see, the amount of fines proposed in the draft law is far from European standards and requires a significant increase to achieve its goal. The proposed changes are unlikely to become a preventive mechanism that will prevent violations of legislation in this area or contribute to resolving the critical situation with generation, accumulation, collection and disposal of waste in Ukraine.

Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine for Implementation of the Provisions of the European Union Legislative Acts on Protection of Waters from Pollution” No. 13201 of 21/04/2025

Adoption of the draft law will ensure the adaptation of certain provisions of the Water Code of Ukraine, the Subsoil Code of Ukraine, and the Law of Ukraine “On Pesticides and Agrochemicals” to the following EU regulations:

Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy, as amended by Decision 2455/2001/EC;

Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of environmental policy for the marine environment (Marine Strategy Framework Directive);

Council Directive No. 91/676/EC of 12.12.1991 concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources, as amended by the Regulation (EC) №1882/2003.

According to the explanatory note, the draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine for Implementation of the Provisions of the European Union Legislative Acts on Protection of Waters from Pollution” was developed with the aim of harmonizing the legislation of Ukraine on the protection of waters from pollution, including those on the reduction of water pollution with biogenic elements and prevention of eutrophication, with the relevant EU law.

The draft law provides for amendments to the Water Code of Ukraine in order to bring its terminology into line with the above-mentioned European Directives. The competence of the central executive authorities of Ukraine in terms of approving the methodology for determining zones vulnerable to (accumulation of) nitrates has been clarified; determining the bodies of surface and groundwater that are affected or may be affected by pollution caused by the inflow of nitrates as a result of agricultural activity, taking into account the hydrographic and water management zoning of the territory of Ukraine. The powers of the central executive authority implementing the state policy in the field of sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population regarding the activities related to pesticides and agrochemicals have been defined. The set of obligatory measures to be undertaken by water users to preserve the water quality of rivers and protect them from nitrate pollution caused by agricultural activity has also been clarified.

Changes are also foreseen to the Code of Ukraine on Subsoil in terms of requirements for preventing subsoil pollution during underground storage of oil, gas and other substances and materials, disposal of harmful substances and production waste, discharge of wastewater, as well as the inflow of nitrogen compounds as a result of agricultural activities.

According to the proposed changes, the term “water pollution” is defined as the direct or indirect human-driven entry into water of substances or heat that may be harmful to human health or to functioning of aquatic ecosystems, which leads to damage to biological resources and ecosystems, including the loss of biological diversity, risks to human health, obstacles for performing certain activities, including fishing. In the current legislation, this term has a narrower meaning and defines water pollution as the entry into water bodies of pollutants when it is not possible to perform proper recording of such violations as a discharge of hot water into water bodies by industrial enterprises, which has repeatedly occurred in Ukraine and led to death of a significant number of fish and other natural organisms and systems.

However, neither the current legislation of Ukraine nor the proposed amendments contain definitions of such terms as biogenic elements and eutrophication, while the goal of this draft law is precisely the reduction of water pollution with biogenic elements and prevention of eutrophication as measures to protect water from pollution.

The Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC does not explicitly define the term “eutrophication” as a separate legal concept, but refers to it as one of the processes affecting the ecological status of water bodies. The Directive uses the concept of “deterioration of water quality” due to increased nutrient levels, which causes algae growth and affects biodiversity and water quality.

In Directive 91/676/EEC (Nitrates Directive), the term “eutrophication” is defined clearly and means the enrichment of water by nitrogen compounds, causing an accelerated growth of algae and higher forms of plant life to produce an undesirable disturbance to the balance of organisms present in the water and to the quality of the water concerned. This definition is used to identify vulnerable zones and to implement measures to reduce the input of nitrates into water bodies. Eutrophication can be the result of natural ageing of a water body, of use of fertilizers or pollution with waste water. Therefore, it would be useful to provide a definition of such a concept in this draft law as well.

There is no legal definition of the concepts of “biogenic elements” and “nutrients” in the Water Framework Directive and the Nitrates Directive; however, the term is actively used in the context of assessing the ecological status of waters, where it actually refers to nitrogen compounds, which are key biogenic elements and nutrients that cause eutrophication. Therefore, it would be reasonable to provide for such concepts in the national legislation.

For reference: biogenic elements are chemical elements that are permanent components of cells of living organisms and play a certain physiological and biochemical role in them. The physiological role of biogenic elements lies primarily in the fact that some of them (oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur) are used in living organisms for the synthesis of organic compounds (nucleic acids, carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, lipoids, etc.), while others, mainly trace elements, are components of molecules that control various biochemical reactions.¹