Ukrainian environmental standards should not be stricter than European ones, - FPU
Strict environmental standards, the introduction of which is insisted upon by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, could leave Ukraine without industrial enterprises, and accordingly - without budget revenues and jobs. After all, Ukrainian industry does not have the hundreds of millions of hryvnias needed for environmental modernization.
This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to an open letter to Minister of Economy Oleksiy Lyubchenko from the Federation of Employers of Ukraine (FEU).
Currently, 11 orders of the Ministry of Environmental Protection are in force in Ukraine, which approve technical standards for permissible emissions of pollutants from individual equipment. The validity period of these standards, according to the orders, expires in 2022-24. After the expiration of the current technical standards, stricter, so-called prospective technical standards, come into force, the letter explains.
However, EU legislation, in particular Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on industrial emissions, provides for longer terms for the introduction of prospective technical standards than those proposed for Ukrainian industrialists, the FEU emphasizes.
"EU Directives take into account the individual technical and economic development of EU member states, as well as the real technological and economic state of enterprises operating in the respective countries. Therefore, EU member states had the right and opportunity to establish and implement a national transitional plan for existing installations, new installations, and after cold repair," the FEU emphasizes.
FEU members emphasize: the cost of transitioning to prospective technical standards will amount to tens to hundreds of millions of euros for individual industries, and, for example, for the coke chemical industry - up to 3 billion euros.
"Such an amount of investment in the short term will put most industries on the verge of cessation of activities. Accordingly, the domestic market and exports will be lost, more than 100 thousand jobs in the glass and related industries, and budget revenues at all levels. At the same time, European governments, in the process of environmental modernization of enterprises, compensated enterprises up to 50% of the costs of installing electrostatic precipitators," the FEU emphasized.
That is why the Federation asks the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Economy, and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, with the participation of the FEU and industry business associations, to prepare and hold a separate meeting to find optimal solutions to this issue.
We remind you that the Verkhovna Rada failed three times to pass bill No.4167, which provided for the transition of Ukrainian industry to the European collection of best available technologies (BAT) within four years. A number of international industry associations and even environmentalists opposed this law. Thus, the European Business Association stated that the introduction of new environmental standards within 4 years is unrealistic, as some EU countries are still implementing BAT, although they started decades ago.
In turn, Lyudmyla Tsyganok, president of the Professional Association of Environmentalists of Ukraine, stated that Ukraine must create a clear roadmap for environmental reforms and provide funding mechanisms, as the introduction of European standards requires colossal investments.
As reported,
at the end of May, people's deputies failed to create an electronic system for issuing emission permits. The Parliament sent bill No. 4167 for a second first reading for a second time.
And in mid-February, the Verkhovna Rada sent bill No. 4167 "On preventing, reducing and controlling industrial pollution" for a second first reading for the first time.