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One of the key problems of Ukraine's environmental conservation policy is a lack of communication between the country's government, businesses, and civil society. This issue was raised at a roundtable talk entitled "Government-Business-Community: Innovative Instruments for Effective Cooperation in the Sphere of Environmental Protection under Conditions of European Integration," which was organized by the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) and Ukrainian environmental non-governmental organization e-Ecology.
Head of the Legal and International Activities Department of the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry of Ukraine Volodymyr Buchko said that the lack of effective communication between ministries and businesses often hinders their work. The issue is especially important during the streamlining of the country's legislation to adhere to EU regulations, as the EU Directives require the active involvement of civil society in the discussion of environmental protection.
Reform of the system of public supervision on environmental protection is also very important. The newly appointed Head of the State Ecological Inspection of Ukraine, Andriy Zayika, stressed that, unfortunately, today the agency does not meet modern requirements and is unable to fulfill its tasks.
"To reform the sphere, we should use the best practices of the world and involve public experts and scientists in this process. The State Ecological Inspection of Ukraine has submitted for public discussion a draft concept of reform in the state supervision (control) agency in the sphere of environmental conservation. It is available on the agency's official Web site. It is being actively discussed and improved during roundtable talks, consultations, and live communication with the public," Zayika said.
The official called on everyone to join in the open dialogue. He added that the practice when the inspection fulfilled exclusively punitive functions should pass into history, while the agency should focus its activities on preventive measures.
The participants in the roundtable meeting also discussed public feedback on the automatic air quality monitoring systems introduced in some regions. This issue is also very important as the reform concept of the State Ecological Inspection declares that human factor will be minimized in favor of remote control by technical means.
A representative of the Ecological Council of Kryvy Rih, Yevhen Vasylenko, told the participants in the meeting about some problems with the use of automatic air quality monitoring systems in Kryvy Rih.
Deputy Head of the e-Ecology Organization in charge of drawing investments Volodymyr Moroz said that the proposed partnership of the government, businesses, and public organizations is a strategic priority in environmental protection. The country has to build a green economy and business under the conditions of further integration in the European and global economic space. He also talked about the implementation of a pilot project aimed at building nationwide communication between the government, businesses, and public in the sphere of ecology. The organization is ready to present a variety of free IT products for professional ecologists of state and private sectors, entrepreneurs and environmentally-oriented citizens.
"We do not support the government's total control over domestic businesses and that is why our efforts are not limited to the elaboration of instruments for online cooperation only between the authorities and the public. We are oriented at socially responsible businesses and we think it is our duty to provide entrepreneurs with an opportunity to communicate with government officials (including inspectors, auditors, etc.) in comfortable and high-quality conditions, as well as minimize an honest entrepreneur's risks to suffer from illegal actions," Moroz said.
IT experts of the e-Ecology organization have developed a range of easy to use, comfortable, and free of charge online services for socially responsible businesses: іC Compulsory Ecoinsurance, іC Check Lawfulness Identifier, іC е-Audit, іС-ПЗ "Environmental Protection Checks," the Catalogue of EcoInvest Proposals. They are available on the Web site: www.ecoukraine.org.
Head of the e-Ecology Organization Serhiy Vorobyov said that the community of environmentalists has many questions and proposals for the draft concept of reforming the system of state supervision (control) agencies in the sphere of environmental conservation, and he added that he was pleased to see the interest in dialogue. At the same time, he said that even a perfect mechanism would not work to its full capacity without human resources.
The participants in the talk agreed to hold regular joint events with the participation of representatives of the State Ecological Inspection of Ukraine, the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry of Ukraine, other central executive agencies, as well as members of the civil society and businessmen.