But is there time and political will for proper implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Ukraine? Does the Ministry have understanding of the spirit of the Aarhus Convention?
In September 2013, EPL drew attention of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine to the critical situation with Ukraine’s compliance with the Aarhus Convention, which would be even more serious due to absence of a focal point at the Ministry responsible for implementation of the Aarhus Convention. Under such circumstances there is high probability that the process of preparing a three-year national report on implementation of the Aarhus Convention that is due by 30 December 2013 will fail.
One month after our appeal the minister issued an order and appointed a focal point. A new focal point is a non-staff counselor of the minister – Ihor Pavlenko and as his assistant was appointed Taisiya Kalinichenko – the head of the department for public relation and contacts with media of the Department of analytical support for work of the minister. It is interesting that the focal point is a person that is not in the staff of the ministry and thus there may arise questions about the right of such a person to sign letters on behalf of the Ministry and Ukraine, represent Ukraine at international meetings of bodies launched within the Aarhus Convention. Almost every year focal points were changes by the ministers, which was probably caused by a serious situation of Ukraine because of its failure to comply with provisions of the Aarhus Convention.
However, the very fact of such an appointment after several months of vacancy of the position is very important, especially in the light of necessity to prepare National report on implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Ukraine. The process of preparing the report was to be started with consultations in May-June 2013 and has to finish by the end of 2013 with preparation of a Russian version of the report and its submission to the Secretariat of the Aarhus Convention. According to the Aarhus Convention, the process of preparing the report should be based on principles of transparency and public involvement. Two previous reports of Ukraine were prepared with active participation of the public but present position of the Ministry of Environment does not indicate to continuation of such a tradition. In his letter to EPL the minister stated that “the national report is being prepared and will be submitted to the Secretariat of the Aarhus Convention”.
There is still some time left for the public to persuade the Ministry of Environment about importance of public discussion and taking account of comments to the national report. Otherwise, the Ministry will not be able to avoid critics for this at the next Meeting of Parties to the Convention in June 2014 in the Netherlands.
Prepared by:
Olha Melen-Zabramna,
Head of legal department of EPL
Email: office@epl.org.ua; o.melen-zabramna@epl.org.ua
tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
