Case

The Opening Letter addresses the lack of complete transposition of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive 85/337/EEC. The deadline for transposing the Directive's provisions into national law expired on 1 January 2013 for Ukraine.

Procedure

By sending an Opening Letter, the Secretariat initiates a preliminary procedure, the purpose of which is to give Ukraine the opportunity to react to the allegation of non-compliance with Energy Community law within two months and to enable the Secretariat to establish the full background of the case. 
   

Case

On 12 January 2017, the Secretariat sent a Reasoned Opinion to Ukraine in Case ECS-13/16. The Reasoned Opinion follows the Opening Letter, which was sent on 6 September 2016, and addresses the lack of complete transposition of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. The deadline for Ukraine, as set by its Accession Protocol to the Energy Community Treaty, expired on 1 January 2013. On 4 October 2016, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a Law on Environmental Impact Assessment, which could have addressed the Secretariat’s concerns as described in the Opening Letter. However, on 31 October 2016 the President of Ukraine refused to sign it and referred it back to the Verkhovna Rada for reconsideration.

In its legal assessment, the Secretariat points out the lack of transposition of the Directive's provisions on transboundary environmental impact assessment and the improper or incomplete transposition of the provisions on the projects to be covered by an environmental impact assessment, on the information to be included in the impact assessment report and on public participation. Therefore, the Secretariat concludes that Ukraine did not fulfil its obligation to transpose the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive into national law.

Procedure

Ukraine has two months to react to the allegation of non-compliance with Energy Community law as set out in the Reasoned Opinion. In the light of the reply or in absence of a reply from Ukraine, the Secretariat may bring the matter to the attention of the Ministerial Council by way of a Reasoned Request in accordance with Article 29 of the Rules of Procedure for Dispute Settlement.

According to Articles 7 and 17 of the Rules of Procedure for Dispute Settlement, interested parties may be granted access to the case file and may submit written observations on the present case to the Secretariat during the preliminary procedure. 

After carrying out a preliminary procedure, the Secretariat submitted a Reasoned Request on Ukraine’s failure to comply with the Energy Community’s rules on environmental impact assessment and in particular with regard to provisions related to projects with transboundary impacts, the projects to be covered by an environmental impact assessment, on the information to be included in the impact assessment report and on public participation.

On 17 July 2017, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine informed the Secretariat about the adoption of national measures transposing Directive 2011/92/EU on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment. With the adoption of such legislation, Ukraine has formally rectified the breaches identified in Case ECS-13/16.

Therefore, the Secretariat decided to discontinue the Case ECS-13/16 and to withdraw the Reasoned Request submitted to the Ministerial Council for decision on 19 May 2017.