Anatolii Semynoha,
Chairman of the Committee, opening the meeting, declared that the Strategy of
the National Environmental Policy of Ukraine for the period till 2020 is an
essential document for the protection of environment and balanced used of
natural resources and national safety of Ukraine. Its implementation shall
provide efficiency of the environmental policy, improves the environmental
conditions for its being more safety for people, implementation of
energy-saving and resource-saving technologies, low-waste, waste-free and
ecologically-safe technological processes. According to him, in future it
should be a legislative base for the development and realization of environmental
measures complex by the means of preparing of National Environmental Plans of
Action.
In the course of the discussion of the bill (Reg. No7053) a number of remarks and propositions were expressed. Namely, it was emphasised that the bill does not consider the basic principles of the National Environmental Policy Concept, adopted by the Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine 17.10.2007 No880-p. People´s Deputies are convinced that the document needs first of all structuring, defining of the environmental component as an equal in the implementation of international agreements, signed by Ukraine, provision of the integration of environmental policy into the economic policy in general, to the national, branch, regional and local policies, plans and programs.
During the sitting it was declared that the bill shall be supplemented by the new chapter regarding the international cooperation. Pursuant to them, the bills´ clauses on environmental insurance, environmental expertise and environmental audit shall be arranged in a new version to harmonize them with the Laws "On Environmental Expertise", "On Environmental Audit."
The participants of the meeting emphasised that the issue on implementation in Ukraine of the Strategy of Environmental Evaluation needs further concretization as one of the principle instruments of environmental policy integration.
In the result of the discussion, the Committee passed the decision to recommend the Parliament adoption of the Bill on the National Environmental Policy Strategy of Ukraine for the Period till 2020 as a basis with the further drafting for the second reading together with the Cabinet of Ministers, taking into the consideration the expressed remarks and propositions.
In the parliamentary hearings of the Strategy took part: the People´s Deputies of Ukraine, representatives of the central and local executive power bodies, research institutions, non-governmental public organizations of environmental orientation etc.