25 November 2015, 16:43
Committee chairperson Mykola Tomenko applies to President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister of Ukraine Arsenii Yatseniuk to expose the inadmissibility of this step and states the following:
"The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources is a central body of the executives in charge of forming the state policy in the field of ecology and natural resources. It is a cross-sector body by its nature and its activities aim at objectives affecting the State as a whole in various areas of life of the society, including objectives of socio-economic development, environment protection, state management, and national security.
The main task of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food is formation of policy in the farming sector and food security of the State.
Merger of the two ministries will lead to conflict of interests in the field of environment protection and use of natural resources and to consolidation of corruption in the sector.
At present the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine and the State Agency of Fisheries of Ukraine are in the area of coordination of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine which has created a powerful corrupted system seeking only benefits and causing extermination of resources under their management. Protection and renewal of the resources remain outside the care of the bodies. Meantime, one of major tasks of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources is protection and conservation of the resources.
The issues of environment protection and sustainable development are defined at the international level as one of major priorities and security factors of existence of the humankind. In the frames of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union Ukraine has assumed commitments regarding adaptation of a package of European directives and this is being done by the main implanting body (the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources).
The sector of environment protection has suffered essential damage due to systemic lack of finance, virtual liquidation of the State fund of environment protection and such funds at the local level, misuse of the ecological tax, termination of territorial bodies, lack of capacities to perform full-fledged state control of observation of environmental legislation, total legal nihilism, and due to the State's treating ecological issues as being of minor importance.
In the view of the ecological challenges and threats gaining the scale of catastrophe it is clear that the change of the current system of management in the environment protection will pose destabilization and will cause economic and security threats.
With all that said the Committee considers it inadmissible lowering the status of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and its merger with any central body of the executives, which, in keeping with the laws of Ukraine and the legislation of the European Union, is in charge of introduction of the ecological element in its activities.
We consider it necessary to find a way to consolidate the role of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources in the system of state management, including in coordination through the Ecology and Natural Resources Minister of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine and the State Agency of Fisheries of Ukraine, and to provide full-fledged state control of observation of the environmental legislation.