UBTA: The business community's position on the draft law "On State Environmental Control" has once again not been taken into account.
Ukrainian business is once again appealing to the authorities regarding the draft law "On State Environmental Control" No. 3091. Despite numerous appeals from Ukrainian business associations and enterprises regarding contradictions and inconsistencies in the Law, the draft was submitted for consideration in the Verkhovna Rada for a repeated first reading and adopted as a basis on July 15, 2021.
The idea of this project, most likely, aimed to update Ukrainian legislation in the field of ecology in accordance with modern challenges and introduce European approaches to state control over the state of the environment.
The Ukrainian Business and Trade Association (UBTA) supports the Government's initiatives regarding the implementation of EU norms and developments in the field of ecology. Natural disasters faced by businesses worldwide have ceased to be exclusively local and have become a global task for humanity. Legislative documents must reflect new standards, rules, and norms.
However, draft law No. 3091 contains a number of significant shortcomings. From the very beginning, the authors chose a legally incorrect concept of the act, which "does not fit" into the existing hierarchy of legislative acts.
In particular, in the field of state control of economic activity, there is already a basic regulatory legal act — the Law of Ukraine "On the Basic Principles of State Supervision (Control) in the Sphere of Economic Activity".
Among the provocative norms that the project contains, the Association highlights:
- conducting a state environmental control measure without the participation of the head of the business entity or an authorized person, if they do not appear within 4 hours;
- suspension of the inspection by the environmental control body for an indefinite period to request documents from the business entity;
- introduction of a new form of environmental control – raid inspections (including at night), which is not defined by any regulatory legal act;
- the possibility of suspending the production (manufacturing) or sale of products, performance of works, provision of services on the basis of an order from the environmental control body;
- setting inflated fines for non-admission to the enterprise (UAH 1.5 million) alongside significantly lower fines for violations of environmental legislation (UAH 140 - 280 thousand).
In addition, the Draft Law "On State Environmental Control" not only does not comply with the basic regulatory act in the field of control of economic activity, but also grossly contradicts it. Also, this draft law contains a number of norms that create grounds for corrupt abuses and significantly worsen the conditions for doing business in Ukraine.
"We support the aspiration to reform the system of environmental control and supervision in Ukraine, but all reforms must take place in accordance with legal norms and civilized approaches. However, bill No. 3091 in its current form poses a threat to domestic entrepreneurs. The newly created environmental inspection should not become a law enforcement body for putting pressure on business," — comments Dmytro Los, head of the Ukrainian Business and Trade Association (UBTA).
In this regard, UBTA appealed in a letter to Oleg Bondarenko, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, with a request to reject this bill and develop a new, conceptually legally correct regulatory act.