IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN UKRAINE:

RISKS ANALYSIS AND PERSPECTIVES (PUBLIC VISION)

Abstract

The National Ecological Center of Ukraine examined the effectiveness of the implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On Environmental Impact Assessment” (dated May 23, 2017 No. 2059-VII) and the by-laws adopted for its implementation. Based on the study, some shortcomings of the Law were named and discussed as wee as ways for their elimination were established. It was shown that a number of articles of the Law should be clarified, and the title of the Law needs compliance with its scope, terminology, and the lists of activities subject to impact assessment. There is also a need to clarify the division of powers and to adopt regulations on organizational support for conducting an environmental impact assessment and public discussion. There is an urgent need to further refine and harmonize the regulatory and methodological framework of the Law with European environmental legislation, in particular, environmental quality standards and relevant methodologies for their definition. Since no provisions have so far been adopted on expert commissions for environmental impact assessment, and the territorial environmental protection authorities are still subject to regional administrations, there is a real threat that the latter can exert pressure to get a customized conclusion. It was noted that there is no relevant procedure for selecting experts of professional and qualitative environmental impact assessment; there is also no mechanism for adding the public to the formation of the register and selection of experts, and financial issues are not fully resolved either. It was highlighted: the main directions for improving environmental impact assessment and organizing the Law revision. Several other urgencies were indicated: to accelerate the modernization of state building norms and other regulations; to withdraw territorial environmental protection departments from the subordination of regional state administrations; to provide a transparent procedure for the appointment of members to the expert commissions, to urgently review environmental indicators, classifications, norms, limits and other restrictive requirements and harmonize them to European standards.