The Ministry of Environment presented the National strategy for harmonizing Ukrainian legislation to EU standards in environmental protection area

On August 21, 2014 the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources hosted presentation of the National strategy of approximation of Ukrainian legislation to the EU legislation environmental protection area. The meeting gathered heads of structural subdivisions of the Ministry Environment and Natural Resources, heads of other ministries and central executive authorities, as well as representatives of international organizations.

In his opening address Andrii Mokhnyk thanked the European Union and Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine for the technical assistance provided in the framework of the project “Support to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine for the sector budget support implementation”. He emphasized: “This document is the next step in strategic planning and organization of activities in implementation of the Association Agreement in the section “Environment”.

In general, during the meeting the parties considered two important stages of the approximation process: bringing the country's legislation into compliance with the EU legislation and practical implementation of the requirements and standards of the EU. According to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources: "Implementation will require significant resources: time, financial and human. Therefore, the Association Agreement envisages for the implementation from two to ten years, and in certain cases the term shall be determined by the Council of the Association depending on progress. The total cost of works and measures for the implementation is approximately half a billion hryvnyas. At this, a full round of implementation of the direction "Environment" requires much greater funds. The experience of the EU states shows that the cost of full implementation makes up about Eur 1 thousand per person in average ".

In the end of the discussion the parties expressed their strong belief that the implementation of the Strategy will open the way to negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the European Union.