Today, on 19th July, 2022, Zakarpatya district administrative court issued decision on administrative case which started in 2017. The court ruled in favor of plaintiffs–local residents declaring illegal decisions of Rahiv and Tyachiv state administrations approving detailed plan of the territory for construction of tourist resort “Svydovets”. This resort is paned on the territory of 1400 ha, foresees withdrawal and logging of 430ha of forests to construct ski lifts and all the infrastructure of resort (construction area – 50 000 m2), new planed roads length – 90 km, length of ski lifts – 53 km.
The process of preparation of the detailed plan of the territory started in 2017 and was followed by formal procedure of public participation in order to prevent wide public discussion of this project. The quality of the detailed plan of the territory was questioned by the public, as this plan had to accommodate building of big resort and existence of the Emerald network site, few protected areas, construction of water reservoirs along high mountainous rivers.
The case was sent for second round on consideration: in 2017 the court of first instance ruled in favor of plaintiffs, but in 2018 the appeal administrative court revoked this decision. EPL, which was the third party to the dispute, filed second appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The Supreme Court considered the case and sent it to the first instance court for new consideration, concluding that questioned decisions of Rahiv and Tyachiv state administrations are normative acts, thus wide range of public might be interested in consideration of this court case.
Thus, plaintiffs, represented by EPL attorney, again went to the first instance court to state how their rights and interests were violated by questioned decisions of local state administrations and by the detailed plan of the territory for construction of tourist resort “Svydovets”. So the court today ruled in favor of plaintiffs.
It is worth mentioning that the obligation of the state on conservation of this sensitive territory is foreseen by few international agreements of Ukraine, such obligation is based on the Association agreement between EU and Ukraine, and EU community reminded Ukraine on the importance of sustainable development of Carpathians, on particular value of Svydovets mountain range, current protected areas located there and on the necessity of creation of more protected areas on that territory in order to prevent its destruction.
So the future generations received a chance to be able to enjoy the intact landscapes of Svydovets mountain range, and tens of valuable and threatened species of flora and fauna received a chance to be saved!