On Thursday, July 13, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted in the second reading for draft law No. 8410 "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment", which in particular reduces the duration of the environmental impact assessment procedure from 216 to 67 days.
According to voting results in the session hall, 256 people's deputies were "for", none were against, 38 people's deputies abstained from voting.
Purpose of the document: improvement of the norms of the current Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment" (EIA), due to the need to implement the principles of digitization of the permit procedure, as well as with the aim of reducing the deadlines for the EIA procedure, and reducing the discretionary powers of the body when making decisions within the EIA procedure.
As stated in the explanatory note, for almost 5 years of practical implementation of the Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment" a number of norms have been identified, the improvement of which can simplify the implementation of the environmental impact assessment procedure for business entities that are the customers of the planned activity, as well as for the public in part simplification of the format of providing comments and suggestions during public discussions during the ATS.
The bill envisages the following changes:
- shortening the period of public discussion of the notice of planned activity from 20 to 12 working days;
- notification of planned activity and announcement of the start of public discussion of the Environmental Impact Assessment Report will be filled out in digital format directly in the Unified Register of Environmental Impact Assessment. The authorized body will no longer be able to reject these documents due to their non-compliance with the approved form;
- the requirement to publish notices and announcements in mass media is cancelled. Instead, the draft law proposes to involve territorial communities to ensure proper public information;
- the public will be able to register on the website of the Register for targeted information about the publication of information and documentation in it;
- the draft law defines an exhaustive list of reasons for refusing to issue a conclusion on the EIA and a shortened procedure for conducting the ATS in the event of eliminating the deficiencies that caused the refusal.
- it is proposed to record the grounds on which the planned activity may be deemed inadmissible.
"In the second reading, 256 people's deputies supported draft law No. 8410, which improves the norms of the current Law of Ukraine "On environmental impact assessment". This will make it possible to speed up Ukraine's post-war recovery and stimulate business development taking into account the environmental component. The procedure will become more convenient, accessible and faster." , — commented on the decision of the Parliament, Minister of Environmental Protection Ruslan Strelets.
As EcoPolitic reported earlier, on April 12, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted draft law No. 8410 in the first reading. The corresponding decision was supported by 253 people's deputies.
