Renewable energy investments in Ukraine at a critical junction

Today the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine decides on Draft Law 3658 implementing the Memorandum of Understanding developed in the mediation process under the Energy Community Dispute Resolution and Negotiation Centre. The Memorandum includes mutual commitments by the Government and a number of renewables investors for restructuring the support schemes for wind and solar based on feed-in tariffs and long-term power purchase agreements. It thus prevented a long-standing dispute from escalating into protracted lawsuits. To maintain that consensus, the transformation of the Memorandum into binding legislation through Law 3658 is important.

However, the Secretariat is concerned that the Government does not make efforts to include also a number of renewables investors, which under the terms of the Memorandum and the Law would undermine the financial viability of their projects. The Ministry in charge of energy has still to reply positively to the proposal by the Secretariat for continued mediation, which would help Ukraine to live up to the international standards of investment protection and non-discriminatory treatment of investors.