Deregulation will promote business development and reduce corruption risks: Yuliia Svyrydenko

The Interagency Working Group on Accelerated Review of State Regulation of Economic Activity has recommended abolishing almost 45% of state regulation instruments in the areas of competence of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and its subordinate central executive bodies. Another 45% of instruments, such as licenses, permits, approvals, etc., were proposed to be modernized.

The relevant decisions were made at a meeting of the IWG on deregulation, headed by First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy Yuliia Svyrydenko and Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov.

The audit of the regulatory field is ongoing. There are two clear priorities in creating a free regulatory environment. The first is to reduce the number of documents regulating business operations to the maximum extent possible. The second is to simplify and modernize those that are necessary to protect society.

“Based on the results of the review, the IWG recommended abolishing or amending about 90% of regulatory instruments in the areas of competence of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and its subordinate central executive bodies. Almost 45% should be canceled. Thus, we will retain those instruments that: reflect the relevant instruments of the European Union, take into account current global trends in environmental and climate protection, meet the requirements of the ‘green transition’, or are necessary to protect the public interest,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

In particular, it is recommended to cancel the approval of:

• an agreement on lease of land with a water body located on it;
• a technological project for returning associated reservoir waters of oil and gas fields to underground horizons;
• boundaries of sanitary protection zones for water bodies.

The IWG also recommended canceling the permits:

• to carry out agricultural, forestry and other production activities within the sanitary protection zones aimed at obtaining marketable products, as well as the construction of social and public facilities, and to conduct scientific research within the sanitary protection zones;
• to carry out works on the lands of the water fund (except for operational dredging) within the coastal protection zones along the seas, sea bays and estuaries, inland sea waters, estuaries and the territorial sea;
• the procedure for entering information into the State Register of Legal Entities about business entities that accept and/or disassemble vehicles for recycling.

A quarter of the instruments proposed for cancellation duplicate the environmental impact assessment. For example, approval of an action plan to ensure environmental protection, protection of the population and territories from emergencies, approval of projects on the size of right-of-way and its use, approval of the construction site of enterprises, structures and other facilities, as well as the introduction of new equipment, technology, materials, and substances that affect or may affect the state of the animal world, etc.

Some of the instruments proposed for cancellation are outdated. Some have simply lost their relevance. Some permits have never been requested since their introduction.

Abolishing and optimizing existing regulatory instruments will significantly reduce business costs. For example, changes have been initiated to the State Building Standards and the procedure for approving construction projects and conducting their expert review, providing for cancellation of the requirement to develop an environmental impact assessment as part of the development of project documentation. If a facility or activity is subject to an environmental impact assessment, business entities may use an Environmental Impact Assessment Report. This solution will save the company up to UAH 400,000, which is the cost of developing the Environmental Impact Assessment section. 45% of the tools are to be modernized. In particular, about 40% are to be digitized.

“In this way, we minimize the influence of the human factor on decision-making and, accordingly, corruption risks. And this is also one of the key tasks of our deregulation work,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

Among the documents proposed for digitization are, for example, permits for waste treatment operations, state registration (re-registration) of pesticides and agrochemicals, and approval of water supply standards. It is proposed to improve the permit for special water use, in particular, to develop an online service for calculating the maximum permissible discharge of substances, as well as the Unified Register of Environmental Impact Assessment, the data of which should be converted into open field forms to enable integration with other information and communication systems, etc.

To remind, at its first meeting, the IWG recommended that the Cabinet of Ministers abolish and digitize about 70% of the existing state regulatory instruments (permits, licenses, declarations of approval, etc.) in the areas of policy-making falling under the competence of the Ministry of Economy. This unprecedented decision is aimed at significantly expanding economic freedoms in Ukraine and stimulating entrepreneurship. In the future, the IWG will consider and propose solutions to optimize the instruments managed by other ministries and agencies.