The Cabinet of Ministers approved the Management Plans for 8 main river basins of Ukraine, approved the European integration draft law "On waste management of the extractive industry", and also extended the deadline for submitted declarations regarding the implementation of waste treatment operations until April 9, 2025.
The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine Svitlana Grynchuk announced this on Facebook.
1. The government approved the main strategic European integration documents – River Basin Management Plans – for 8 main river basins of Ukraine: Dnipro, Don, Dniester, Vistula, Southern Bug, Azov, Black Sea, and Crimea until 2030.
The head of the Ministry of Environment explained that these are "road maps" on how to improve the quality of surface and underground water in practice. According to her, they will help assess the state of Ukrainian water resources, determine ways to improve them, and also allow Ukraine to fulfill its European integration obligations and harmonize its water policy with the EU Water Framework Directive.
The next step of the state will be the implementation of these plans.
"This is one of the key indicators in the Water Quality sector during the negotiation process regarding Ukraine's accession to the EU," says Svitlana Grynchuk.
2. The Cabinet of Ministers approved the European integration draft law "On waste management of the extractive industry". The minister is sure that this document will allow Ukraine to implement the provisions of the European Directive 2006/21/EC and solve existing problems with waste from the extractive industry. She reminded that even before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the volume of such waste generation in Ukraine was the highest among European countries. In addition, a significant part of them has been left to us as a legacy from Soviet times.
"In order to correct the situation and continue to confidently move towards the European Union, it is important for Ukraine to bring the national legal framework into compliance with EU legislation," says Svitlana Grynchuk.
3. Government officials agreed to the proposal of the Ministry of Environment and extended the deadline for submitted declarations regarding the implementation of waste treatment operations until April 9, 2025. These are the declarations submitted by business entities until January 9, 2024 as part of the government's temporary introduction of the declarative principle before issuing permit documents.
"With this decision, the Government gave businesses additional time to adapt to the new rules as part of the waste management reform and postponed obtaining permits for waste treatment operations," said the head of the ministry. She reminded that the exception is the economic activity of hazardous waste management, which is not subject to the extension of the deadline.
As EcoPolitic already reported, in mid-October the Ministry of Environment spoke with the initiative to extend the validity period of previously received waste management declarations for another six months. We will remind that this is not the first such extension: at the beginning of June the government continued the validity of these documents is for 4 months – until October 9, 2024.
