The Parliament approved the environmental policy priorities for 5 years

On 14 January, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved Recommendations of the parliamentary hearings held on 27 November 2019 on the Priorities of the Environmental Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for the Next Five Years. 334 MPs voted in favor of the document.

The document systematizes the proposals of MPs, the Cabinet of Ministers, executive authorities, scientific and public organizations, presented at the parliamentary hearings on 27 November. Now, the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Environmental Policy and Environmental Management proposes to adopt this document in principle. The Cabinet of Ministers is to report to MPs on the implementation of the Recommendations of the parliamentary hearings until 1 July this year.

Among the items of the Recommendation related to the industry and the mining & metals sector, attention can be paid to the proposal of the Cabinet to step up, in cooperation with other public authorities, the development and presentation to the Parliament of the following draft laws:

• on compliance with international commitments, implementation of the EU acquis on climate change and protection of the ozone layer;
• on increasing fines for offences and crimes in the field of environmental protection and the use of natural resources;
• on enhancing liability of businesses for environmental modernization activities;
• on the National Environmental Fund of Ukraine, set up from the environmental tax proceeds to be further spent for environmental purposes only;
• on revision of the Subsoil Code of Ukraine;
• on revision of the National Program for the Development of the Mineral Resources Base of Ukraine until 2030;
• on waste management, in particular waste treatment and introduction of a hierarchy of waste management, a national waste register, an extended producer responsibility system, new principles of the permit system;
• on environmental surveillance and state monitoring of the environment. These include, among other things, the revised Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Atmospheric Air” and introduction of mandatory systems of pollutant emission control.

As reported earlier, the proposals of representatives of the business sector to the Recommendations of the parliamentary hearings were mainly presented in two letters by the European Business Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.