April 29, 2013, Kyiv — At a special roundtable, experts of Working Group 3, "Environment, Climate Change and Energy Security," of the Ukrainian National Platform of Eastern Partnership (EaP) Civil Society Forum reported results of their study assessing the progress achieved in 2012 in meeting environmental priorities of the Ukraine-EU Association Agenda and EaP Bilateral and Multilateral Roadmaps. The group, which includes representatives from MAMA-86, also provided their recommendations on how to eliminate existing barriers on the way to effective European integration in the domain of environment.

The round table "Assessment of Environmental Reforms in the Context of Ukraine-EU Bilateral Relations" was organized by the Resource and Analytical Center "Society and Development" and the Ukrainian National Environmental NGO "MAMA-86." Both the event and the study were carried out within the framework of the project "Assessment of the Environmental Component of the EU-Ukraine Bilateral Cooperation," run by the Center with financial support from the International Renaissance Foundation.

Beside a general assessment of how Ukraine realizes its European Integration commitments in the environmental sphere, the project's coordinators and experts presented their key conclusions and recommendations aimed at ensuring meeting of specific priorities on the Association Agenda and the EaP Roadmaps. These priorities include implementation of the National Strategy of Environmental Policy and the National Environmental Action Plan; development and implementation of Ukrainian environmental legislation, in particular on environmental impact assessment, strategic environmental assessment, access to environmental information, and public participation; development of national implementation tools for a number of international agreements (such as the Aarhus Convention, the Espoo Convention, and many others); convergence of Ukrainian environmental legislation with EU standards, Ukraine-EU cooperation on environment protection, etc.

The progress on the priorities was expressed as percentage. According to the report, "Assessment of the Environmental Component of the EU-Ukraine Bilateral Cooperation," Ukraine has performed best on the Roadmap's priorities: "Convergence of environmental legislation" (84%) and "Multilateral dimension of the Eastern Partnership Roadmap (environment; 74%). As for the Association Agenda, the highest rates belong to the implementation of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (75%) and the Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Danube River (70%). The priorities that fell behind include "Implementing the Kyoto Protocol through a dialogue within the Joint EU-Ukraine Working Group" (21%), "Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats" (the Bern Convention; 35%), and "Implementation of the National Strategy of Environmental Policy and the National Environmental Action Plan" (36%).

MAMA-86 Executive Director Zoriana Mishchuk, who is a co-coordinator of the project and the coordinator of Working Group 3, told about major difficulties in executing the National Strategy of Environmental Policy and the National Environmental Action Plan – one of the Agenda's most important and least successful priorities in terms of implementation. Anna Tsvetkova, MAMA-86 Coordinator of Water and Sanitation Program, presented expert assessment of realization of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (the Water Convention). Olga Tsygulyova, MAMA-86 Head of the Chemical Safety Program, reported on Ukraine's successes and problems in implementing the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

The experts cited systemic problems Ukraine needs to solve on its path toward European integration in the area of environment. These include the low priority and inadequate institutional support of the environmental policy integration into other spheres of public policy; lack of a complex approach to fulfilling environmental commitments; the low level of implementation of national environmental legislation and international environmental agreements to which Ukraine is a party; and a number of other problems.

The round table participants took into account the importance of interaction among various stakeholders in ensuring the EU integration environmental reforms, in particular through setting up a trilateral dialogue between the civil society, public authorities, and EU agencies in order to discuss pressing issues and jointly look for solutions. With this in mind, the civil society experts discussed the assessment results and recommendations at the round table with representatives from Ukraine's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine.

It is expected that basic conclusions and recommendations of the study will be communicated to relevant authorities and other stakeholders.

The WG3 report in Ukrainian is available here:

http://mama-86.org.ua/images/stories/publications/EU_Ukraine_Monitoring_2013_FINAL.pdf

The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a project launched in May 2009 to put into effect a political association and economic integration between the EU and its Eastern Partners.

The EaP Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF) is a multinational platform of civil society organizations from EaP countries and EU member states as well as European and international networks. It was established to facilitate civil society participation in the development, implementation, and assessment of the EaP. It operates both on the regional and national level.

Working Group 3 "Environment, climate change and energy security" of the Ukrainian National Platform of EaP CSF includes around 40 leading Ukrainian NGOs promoting environmental and energy reforms.