The Professional Association of Ecologists of Ukraine (PAEU) criticized the Ministry of Environment for not considering 7 business proposals for the new draft law "On Environmental Impact Assessment".
Also, ecologists critically evaluated the proposals of the part of determining the grounds for providing a conclusion from the Department of Internal Affairs regarding the inadmissibility of the planned activity, as well as other procedural points, reports ECOBUSINESS.
The PAEU supported the changes proposed by the draft law in terms of shortening the time limit for the permit procedure and its completion in digital format directly in the Unified Register of IEA.
Environmentalists criticized the grounds for refusing to issue a conclusion from the EIA without a proposal from the authorized body regarding an acceptable alternative and determining the environmental conditions of the planned activity.
"The results regarding the majority of proposals, namely their non-consideration, leads to the leveling of the requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On the basics of state regulatory policy in the field of economic activity" regarding the guaranteed full consideration of each proposal and is one of the reasons for the adoption of the decision of the DRS to refuse approval the project of the regulatory act", the material says.
Arguments for rejected proposals:
- Amendments are proposed to Article 9, 9-1 of the Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment" in the part of determining the grounds for issuing an environmental impact assessment opinion, which defines the inadmissibility of the planned activity and the grounds for refusing to issue an environmental impact assessment opinion.
"Rejecting PAEU's proposal, the Ministry of Environment refers to business proposals to determine the grounds for declaring the activity inadmissible," the article noted.
PAEU emphasized that according to Art. 6 of the Law, the authorized body issues an opinion on environmental protection, which, based on the assessment of the environmental impact of the planned activity, determines the admissibility of the planned activity or justifies the inadmissibility of the planned activity and determines the environmental conditions for its implementation.
So, if the environmental impact assessment of the considered justified alternative options turns out to be an ecologically justified option, different from the one proposed by the economic entity, with the written consent of the economic entity, the agreed variant of the implementation of the planned activity is indicated in the conclusion of the environmental impact assessment.
PAEU emphasized that it was the possibility of choosing an ecologically sound version of the planned activity by recognizing it as admissible, or by establishing environmental conditions for its implementation (in case of inadmissibility), and not the refusal to issue a conclusion, provided for by the Directive, that was implemented by the Law and creates a favorable investment climate.
- Rejection of the proposal to enter the results of post-project monitoring into the Unified Register of Environmental Protection, due to the fact that such a requirement is not provided for by Council Directive 2011/92/EEC on the assessment of the impact of individual public and private projects on the environment, and that the primary data must be verified .
Environmentalists drew attention to the fact that in various issues not regulated by the Directive, the Ministry of Environment introduces "more stringent requirements" (the possibility of declaring an activity inadmissible and refusing to issue a conclusion), and in matters of accumulating primary information regarding the actual impact of activities on the environment, - refers on impossibility.
However, the material emphasized that informing about the results of post-project monitoring ensures the implementation in Ukraine of the Convention on access to information, public participation in the decision-making process and access to justice on issues related to the environment (Orgas Convention).
Currently, such informing is carried out in accordance with the periodicity specified in the conclusions of the EIA thanks to the sending of reports to the local self-government bodies, on the territory of which the activity is carried out.
Placing such reports in the Unified Register would make it possible to ensure:
- centralized accumulation, processing, systematization and storage of information and documents regarding planned activities, created in the process of environmental impact assessment;
- detection of any discrepancies and deviations in the predicted levels of impact and effectiveness of measures to prevent environmental pollution and its reduction, based on the results of post-project monitoring;
- access of all interested parties (licensing, regulatory bodies, the public) through the website of the Register to information and documents on planned activities created in the process of implementation of the EIA and during its implementation.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the Ministry of Environment published the draft law "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment" to receive comments and suggestions for consultations with the public.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the professional association of ecologists of Ukraine supported the new draft law "On environmental impact assessment" changes regarding shortening of procedure terms and its passage in digital format directly in the Unified Register of EIA.
