Ship owners no longer need to provide a copy of their ship environmental declaration. Ukraine’s State Service for Regulatory Policy and Development of Entrepreneurship (the Entrepreneurship Service) has decided to suspend the relevant provisions of a Ministry of Environment decree. Thus, total control over ships’ segregated ballast water in Ukrainian ports has been canceled.
In accordance with the decision of the Entrepreneurship Service, the Ministry of Environment has amended its decree No. 429 dated 04.11.2011. The amendments have been published in the Uriadovyi Kurier government newspaper, and they entered into force on 30 September this year.
"The relevant amendments adapt the national environmental legislation to international standards and eradicate one of the most common corruption schemes. This will have a positive impact on increase of the competitiveness of Ukrainian ports and the attractiveness of the entire port industry to investment," the Ukrainian Federation of Employers said.
As the CFTS portal reported previously, the Ukrainian Federation of Employers has repeatedly written to the Ministry of Environment, the Entrepreneurship Service, the Ministry of Infrastructure, and the Ministry of Justice to ask for abolition of the ship environmental declaration. Lawyers for the federation have also participated in the Entrepreneurship Service’s measures on this issue and repeatedly appealed to the Ministry of Economic Development to consider the position of transport sector employers.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine and the European Business Association have also repeatedly called for abolition of total control over segregated ballast water. The American Chamber of Commerce organized several meetings of its working group on seaports to discuss the procedure for regulating segregated ballast water and its compliance with the international practice and appealed to the government to set out its own position.
Market participants had been saying for a long time that changes to the environmental regulations were needed. Differences between the Ukrainian legislation and international legislation have caused conflicts between Ukrainian environmentalists and maritime business operators. The latter repeatedly noted that the environmental control system at Ukrainian ports was extremely opaque, inconsistent with international practice, and created conditions for corruption schemes.
