Experts from the Association of Environmental Professionals (PAEW) said that to attract foreign investments in the field of subsoil use in Ukraine, it is necessary to introduce fair rules for the sale of special permits.
The information contained in the auction announcement does not contain regulations regarding the need to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure, reports the Office of Sustainable Solutions.
It is noted that after the end of the bidding, the State Geology and Subsoil Service concludes a purchase and sale agreement for such a permit with the winner. However, the document provides for a ban on subsoil extraction until an opinion is obtained from the EIA.
The article emphasized that the law "On environmental impact assessment" provides that the following objects and activities are subject to the procedure:
- quarries and open-pit mining of minerals, their processing or beneficiation in place on an area of more than 25 hectares or peat extraction on an area of more than 150 hectares;
- mining of minerals, except for minerals of local importance, which are mined by landowners or land users within the land plots granted to them with the appropriate target use;
- mineral processing, including beneficiation.
"It is quite clear that the organizer of the auction should have warned the participants in advance that the winner of the auction is "buying a cat in a bag", – said in PAEW.
It is noted that to participate in the auction, the participant must pay a guarantee fee of 20% of the initial price of the lot. Amounts are doubled for each re-auction, quintuple for the second re-auction, and 15 times for each subsequent re-auction.
In PAEW explained that in addition to fees, bidders have to spend money on geological, auction and other types of documentation. And after the end of the auctions, it is necessary to carry out the EIA procedure, according to the conclusion of which the activity can be recognized unacceptable
"The question arises, what was sold to you, what is guaranteed by the state in the form of the State Geodesy, what are the funds paid for, which, as the winner of the auction, are not returned?", PAEW stressed.
"If we want our own or foreign investments in the field of subsoil exploitation, the market needs fair rules of the game! We in PAEW have repeatedly emphasized this and we again appeal to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and the President's Office with a request to immediately respond to the problem, because we must continue to rebuild our state together!" , – said the president of the Association of Environmental Professionals PAEW Lyudmila Tsyganok.
We will remind you that the Verkhovna Rada supported in the second reading draft law No. 4187 "Regarding the improvement of legislation in the field of subsoil use", which launches the reform of subsoil use in Ukraine. At the end of December 2022, the document was signed by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi
As previously reported by EcoPolitics, the new Law No. 3227-IX "On Environmental Impact Assessment" entered into force in Ukraine on July 29, due to which, from July 31, the public discussion of the report with EIA will take place according to the new rules.
