The Interagency Working Group on Accelerated Review of State Regulation of Economic Activity has recommended lifting 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 authorities. Another 45% of instruments, namely 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 lifting or amending approximately 90% of regulatory instruments in the areas of competence of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and its subordinate central executive authorities. Almost 45% should be cancelled. 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 First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko.

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 cancelling the permits:

• to conduct 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 perform 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 to the State Register of Legal Entities about economic 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.

Lifting 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 design documentation. If a facility or activity is subject to an environmental impact assessment, economic 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 activities,” 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 as well as approval of water supply standards. The proposal is 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, whose data should be converted into open field forms to enable integration with other information and communication systems, etc.

As a reminder, at the first meeting, the IWG recommended to the Cabinet of Ministers to cancel and digitize about 70% of the current state regulation instruments (permits, licenses, declarations, approvals, etc.) in the sectors of policy making by the Ministry of Economy. Such an unprecedented decision aims to significantly expand economic freedoms in Ukraine and stimulate the development of entrepreneurship.  In the future, the IWG will consider and propose solutions for the optimization of instruments that other ministries and departments take care of.