On Friday, 25 September, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, signed Law No. 4961-IX “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Improvement of the Functioning of Industrial Parks”, which abolishes the mandatory environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the development of such facilities.
Information on this appeared in the document’s details on the Verkhovna Rada’s website.
The authors of the bill explained the need for the changes as a means of removing administrative barriers and simplifying the business environment (deregulation).
Experts from the NGO ‘EcoClub’ analysed the document and concluded that, alongside the administrative barriers, the MPs had removed a critically important environmental safeguard.
What will change in environmental impact assessments
The new law removes ‘the development of industrial parks’ from the list of planned activities subject to the EIA procedure. However, an EIA may still be required for a specific enterprise within the park if its activities fall within the categories set out in Article 3 of the Law ‘On Environmental Impact Assessment’.
"And this is a very important point. After all, individual assessments of specific businesses are no substitute for an assessment of the entire area. An industrial park may comprise dozens of production facilities, warehouses, roads, energy infrastructure, and water supply and drainage systems. Each of these may have a separate impact. But for people living nearby, it will be a single industrial area with a combined impact on air, water, soil, the transport system and noise levels,” explains Yurii Zadorozhnyi, an expert on socio-political issues at the NGO “EcoClub”.
Why is this decision harmful to the environment?
Experts from the NGO ‘EcoClub’ have identified the following risk factors:
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An industrial park comprises dozens of businesses, ranging from waste processing to energy generation, all located within a single site. Their cumulative impact on air quality, water quality and the health of local residents will not be assessed before a decision is taken to allow the activities to proceed.
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The public has lost a legitimate means of finding out about the risks and influencing decisions before economic activities begin. Any potential environmental problems will have to be dealt with after the event, which is considerably more difficult and expensive.
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In its 2025 report on Ukraine, the European Commission clearly emphasised that we must avoid blanket exemptions from EIA procedures for entire categories of projects and from the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).
"In other words, the bill that has been passed contravenes the EU Directive on Environmental Impact Assessment and the European Commission’s recommendations, which complicates Ukraine’s path to the European Union, where the principles of environmental and human safety are paramount," says Yuriy Zadorozhniy.
EcoPolitics previously reported that Ukraine had simplified the EIA procedure for businesses in communities near the front line.
We have also reported on instances where businesses have ignored this procedure. For example, in Volyn, the woodworking company ‘Woodland’ operated for years without an EIA report, whilst in the “Podilski Tovtry” National Park in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, the company “Eco Wind Tovtry” Ltd, without this document, had already begun constructing a wind farm.
