On 4 October 2016, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Environmental Impact Assessment” and the Law of Ukraine “On Strategic Environmental Assessment”.
Environmental activists and people of Ukraine had been waiting for these laws for more than ten years after the Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention when reviewing EPL’ case on construction by Ukraine of the navigation canal Danube-Black Sea found Ukrainian legal framework and practice on public participation to be in non-compliance with Ukraine’s obligations under the Convention. Adoption of these laws was also required by Ukraine’s obligation to implement relevant EU Directives within the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. George Kremlis, Director General for the Environment, EU Commission in his speech at the round-table prior to the adoption of the laws emphasized that EU-Ukraine Association Agreement is the road map to implement key EU Directives, among which EIA Directive and SEA Directive are priority ones, and adoption of EIA and SEA laws is very important for the country and for its international obligations.
These laws eliminate the Soviet system of state environmental expertise and bring well-developed and tested European standards of environmental impact assessment into the national legislation; they prescribe clear, transparent and understandable procedure of the assessment, provisions on public participation and openness of information that decision are made upon.
The newly adopted laws will ensure prevention, minimization and control over negative impacts on the environment caused by human activities. This is just a top of the iceberg because long-awaited proper regulation of these issues in Ukraine will also have positive impact on investment climate, economy and international image of the state. As stated by the member of the European Parliament Rebecca Harms, “These laws are steps forward in good direction in environmental policies in Ukraine. It is high time to make progress with environmental impact assess in Ukraine. It is the period of major change and also major investments. I hope the legislation for the environment is ready to cope with the situation of new big projects and possible investments for this.”
Yesterday was also an important day for water protection because the framework Law “On amending legal acts of Ukraine regarding implementation of integrated approaches to management of water resources by basin principle” was adopted. It enables launching in Ukraine of a European integrated model of water management within river basins, which is beneficial for preservation and restoration of water resources, implementation of principles of sustainable development and in this way for economic development of Ukraine. For an average citizen adoption of this law means the possibility to safely swim in open water bodies, to be able to drink water from open sources and spend less on health because quality of water is quality of life.
Nevertheless, a lot of efforts are still to be made to ensure practical implementation of newly adopted legal provisions. First of all, it is crucial to develop a number of by-laws without narrowing guarantees of openness and transparency envisaged by the legislation. Another important component of the further action plan is training for all stakeholders on the procedure of environmental assessments: project designers, developers, public officials, and the public. There is still a lot of work ahead, but good legislative basis gives us optimistic vision of the future.
