The Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on environmental policy and nature management recommended that the parliament adopt as a basis the government draft law No. 8410 "On assessment of the impact on the environment", which, according to experts, contains a number of negative norms.
According to EcoPolitic, the document will probably be put to a vote in the Verkhovna Rada in the week from April 10 to 15.
Draft Law No. 8410 is designed to solve the problems of the EIA procedure, which were discovered during the five years of its implementation. However, the document does not take into account comments and suggestions of the public, as well as a number of negative norms are not worked out.
President of the Association of Environmental Professionals PAEU, founder of the Office of Sustainable Solutions, Lyudmila Tsyganok, criticized the draft law and the position of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.
She emphasized that despite the department's statement about "openness and cooperation", its position on the Department of Internal Affairs raises many questions. In particular, regarding the leveling of the requirements of the Law "On the Basics of State Regulatory Policy in the Field of Economic Activity" regarding the guaranteed full consideration of each offer, as well as regarding the justifications for rejection of offers.
Tsyganok emphasized that the document does not take into account comments regarding:
- legal certainty "non-compliance of the submitted documents with the requirements of the legislation" regarding the disclosure of the norms of "legislation" with a clear specification of their content;
- the actual equating of the provision of an opinion from the EIA, in which the inadmissibility of the planned activity is determined, with the procedure of refusing to issue a conclusion from the EIA, since the planned activity is not implemented as a result of the specified decisions;
- the possibility of informing business entities about the presence of such comments and proposals of authorized bodies, based on the results of consultations, as well as the procedure for receiving them and taking them into account when carrying out an environmental impact assessment regarding the planned activity;
- not fully complying with the regulatory impact analysis (RIA) of the draft Law with the requirements of the Methodology for conducting the impact analysis of the regulatory act, approved by Resolution No. 308 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 11, 2004.
She also emphasized that in RIA, reducing the duration of the procedure is defined as a benefit. However, it has not been analyzed what benefits the state, the public, and business will receive if the activity is recognized as unacceptable or the environmental impact assessment is refused. Also, the draft law does not include costs associated with the need to repeat the procedure when the planned activity is determined to be inadmissible or when the opinion is refused.
The Ministry of Environment rejected the sent 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.
Also, the Ministry of Environment did not consider the proposal for exclusion as a reason for refusing the conclusion of the Department of Internal Affairs of the recognition of public hearings as having not taken place due to the non-appearance of the business entity, as well as its violation of the legislation on holding public hearings.
Changes to the EIA procedure always cause large-scale discussions among all interested parties. However, the new draft law, despite a number of promising changes, also contains negative norms. The main tool for harmonizing economic development with environmental protection cannot be adopted hastily and even without taking into account the position of the public.
Previously, EcoPolitic analyzed the government draft law No. 8410 "On Environmental Impact Assessment" and talked to experts to evaluate the changes.
