Rada passes at first reading bill on strategic environmental assessment
Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada intends to introduce a mechanism for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for planning economic operations.
A total of 239 lawmakers backed at first reading bill No. 3259 on Tuesday.
According to an explanatory note, Ukraine does not have a mechanism for taking into account environmental factors in designing and adopting draft public planning documents. SEA would be carried out before making decisions for public planning. It meets SEA Directive 2001/42/EC.
The document aims at establishing the procedure for SEA, the transboundary consultations mechanism, informing on the decision making and monitoring the impact of the implementation of public planning documents on environment.
The bill envisages the introduction of SEA and amendments to legislation on environment protection for pubic planning and economic operations, taking into account top priority environmental factors, including public health and ecosystems health.
The bill will amend Ukrainian laws on environment protection, on public targeted programs, on environmental examination, on providing sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population and on regulating town-planning.
