July 12-13, 2013, Irpin, Kyiv Oblast — A forum of environmental civil society organizations (CSOs) on "Building Environmental Democracy in Ukraine: Challenges and Tasks for Environmental Civil Society" was held to facilitate coordination of CSOs’ efforts and enhance their capacity to participate in environmental policy development, implementation and assessment. The two-day event included an overview of the current state of public participation and relevant European Union's support programs, assessment of CSOs needs, exchange of good practices, discussions, training and networking, as well as drafting appeals to public authorities on most pressing environmental policy problems and planning feasible further joint actions to solve them.

Participants in the event included representatives from numerous environmental CSOs from all Ukrainian regions, as well as from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, foreign embassies, EU donor institutions and projects, and others.

The Forum was the first public event under the project "Building Environmental Democracy in Ukraine" implemented by the Ukrainian National Environmental NGO "MAMA-86" with support from the European Union. The project's goal is to increase the environmental policy effectiveness in Ukraine through an enhanced and qualified public participation in the environmental policy development and implementation. To achieve this goal, the project is encouraging a dialogue between different stakeholders in relevant policy processes, improving information exchange and promoting transparency and integrity, and strengthening the CSOs capacity to participate in policy planning, implementation, monitoring, and assessment.

The Forum allowed environmental movement activists, interested in enhancing the public influence on environmental policies at every level, to get together to discuss challenges and tasks for CSOs on this way, share knowledge and practices, and outline joint top-priority actions to strengthen the environmental democracy in Ukraine, including creation of a multifunctional platform for information and communication.

Opening the event, MAMA-86 Executive Director Zoriana Mishchuk said, "Public participation, including active CSO involvement in environmental decision-making, is critical for ensuring

Ukraine

’s progress in implementing its environmental policy in line with EU standards. This is especially true considering the challenging current state of environment, the lack of relevant horizontal and vertical policy coordination for good environmental governance, the non-transparent budgeting process and occurrences of nature-conservation funds misuse, as well as weak traditions of following policy cycles, in particular at the regional and local levels."

Colombe de Mercey, Civil Society and Media Sector Manager of the EU Delegation, highlighted the importance of encouraging more active participation of citizens in the country's development processes. "Each of us must understand that only our personal involvement and support from existing NGOs will make a difference," she said.

The Forum participants adopted three joint statements: on environmental aspects of shale gas production in Ukraine; on the situation with lands of the Yalta Mountain & Forest Reserve; and on the urgency of having environmental policies integrated into sectoral and regional development strategies and implementing a proper procedure for environmental impact assessment. The statements will be sent to the President of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.