By KYIV. Dec 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine, within the framework of its European integration obligations under the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention), on the sidelines of the Ninth Meeting of the Parties to the Espoo Convention, solved a 20-year dispute with Romania over the fulfillment of its requirements during the construction of the Danube-Black Sea Canal, Minister of Environment Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets has said.
“We have done our homework and have come a long way in bringing the requirements of the Convention into line with the draft. After all, Ukraine is not indifferent to good neighborly relations and compliance with international law. We want and can seek a common language and correct the mistakes of the past,” he wrote on Facebook from a meeting in Geneva.
Strilets thanked his Romanian counterpart Mircea Fechet for supporting this historic decision and Minister of Environment of Moldova Iordanca-Rodica Iordanov for her professional and diplomatic presiding over the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention.
The Ukrainian minister added that the Ukrainian delegation in Geneva also managed to achieve two more gains, including the refusal to elect a representative of Belarus to the working bodies of the Espoo Convention, which was supported by 34 countries.
“At the 43rd Session of the Executive Body for the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, Moscow was deprived of its status as the host of the Vostok Meteorological Center of the EMEP programme. Thirty three countries out of 35 participating countries backed this. Now, the international environmental research center will be based at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia. We hope that soon it will work at the Ukrainian Weather Center!” Strilets also wrote.
The Espoo Convention is a United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) convention signed in Espoo, Finland, in 1991 that entered into force in 1997. According to the document, the environmental impact assessment should be carried out not only within the state, but also in neighboring countries that may be affected by the impact of hazardous objects.
As reported, in August 2004, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma opened traffic along the first part of the canal. At the same time, on September 1, the European Commission expressed its protest to Ukraine in connection with the continuation of work on the construction of a canal in the Danube Delta, which is under the protection of UNESCO. The European Commission called on Kyiv to stop construction until an examination of the impact that this canal could have on the environment in the river delta is carried out. In addition, Romania stated that it would challenge the construction of the canal.
According to the decision of President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko in June 2005, work on deepening the Danube-Black Sea canal through the mouth of Bystre was suspended for an examination. An examination by the commission of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine found that the canal does not harm nature.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine proceeds from the fact that the restoration of navigation in the lower Danube is the sovereign right of the state and is aimed at restoring the situation that historically existed in this region before 1994.
The Ukrainian side then stated that its position was confirmed by international experts during a visit to the immediate work site in the Danube Delta. Thus, since the beginning of restoration work, the lower Danube has been visited by representatives of the Ramsar, Berne, Aarhus Conventions, the Espoo Convention, the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, and the World Wildlife Fund. The mission’s recommendations contained three main requirements for Ukraine: not to begin work on the second stage of the project until the completion of the environmental impact assessment for the implementation of the second stage; holding public hearings on the environmental consequences of the project; conducting systematic monitoring of the state of the environment in the implementation of the project, in which international experts and representatives of Romania should be involved. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukraine has fulfilled all three requirements.
Nevertheless, the dispute continued, and Ukraine also put forward counterclaims to Romania under the Espoo Convention regarding its implementation of its projects in the Danube Delta.
