The Association of Environmental Professionals PAEU called on the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Environmental Policy and Nature Management to take into account the comments of businesses and prevent disproportionate regulation of the permitting procedure for environmental impact assessment.
The permissive procedure of the ATS is currently the most controversial among all interested parties and is perceived critically by all participants, reports the Office of Sustainable Solutions.
As you know, the eco-committee will hold a meeting on March 29 at 3:00 p.m., at which it will consider draft law No. 8410 "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment".
It is noted that the EIA procedure has been carried out for 5 years. However, certain norms established by Directive 2011/92/EU and proposed by the Law on EIA have not been implemented. In particular:
- expert commissions on EIA;
- agreement on an alternative variant of the implementation of the planned activity;
- coordination of additional measures and actions to prevent, avoid, reduce (mitigation), eliminate, limit the impact of economic activity on the environment.
"The authors of the legislative initiative have repeatedly developed projects to amend the Law, in most cases aimed at regulating the procedure", emphasized PAEU
The President of the PAEU Association Lyudmila Tsyganok emphasized that despite the public declaration of "openness and cooperation", the official position of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources raises many questions, namely:
- leveling the requirements of the Law "On the Basics of State Regulatory Policy in the Field of Economic Activity";
- guaranteed full consideration of each offer;
- the justifications for rejections of PAEU proposals.
It is noted that the Ministry of Environment rejected the proposals PAEU regarding:
- familiarization of the business entity with the proposals and comments received during consultations with the authorized authorities for the proper assessment of the impact on the environment of the planned activity, taking into account the proposals and comments of all interested parties, determining the level of detail of the EIA, taking into account or justified deviation in the EIA report;
- relocation of enterprises without passing EIA;
- publication of information on obtaining a conclusion from the EIA and a decision on the implementation of the planned activity, depending on the time of their receipt;
- determination by the authorized body of the environmental conditions for the implementation of the planned activity in the event that the proposed activity is declared inadmissible;
- elimination of the need to develop and approve additional plans for post-project monitoring (PPM) and publicize its results;
- temporarily, for the period of martial law, suspend PPM.
PAEU emphasized that the proposal for the Ministry of Environment did not consider the exclusion as grounds for refusal in the conclusion of the Department of Internal Affairs to recognize public hearings as having not taken place due to the non-appearance of the business entity, as well as his violation of the legislation on holding public hearings.
Earlier, EcoPolitic analyzed the government draft law No. 8410 "On environmental impact assessment" and talked to experts to assess the changes.
