Environment and Renewables
DIRECTIVE 2003/4/EC ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION AND REPEALING DIRECTIVE 90/313/EEC (ARTICLE 363 OF THE ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT) This Directive ensures the implementation of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention relating to public access to environmental information. Access to environmental information held by public authorities must be guaranteed to citizens, either on demand or through its active dissemination. Information on demand must be provided at least in one month from the day of the application. The provision of information may be refused if the request is too general or relates to an uncompleted document or internal communication.
The Government’s Priority Action Plan for 2017 provided for the introduction of an electronic document flow system in the Ministry for Ecology and Natural Resources and the creation of a single unified electronic system for access to environmental information on permits, licenses, statistical reports, materials of inspections, and monitoring in the field of environmental protection335. In general, the implementation of Directive 2003/4/EC does not require any systemic changes to current legislation. The development of amendments to the legislation of Ukraine regarding the determination of environmental information, the determination of a public body, the impossibility of refusing to respond to a request, and the creation and ensuring the operation of a functioning automated information-analytical system of monitoring of the environment, provision of electronic access to environmental information and publication of ecological information were among the normative measures that had to be undertaken in accordance with the Association Agreement Implementation Plan. Nevertheless, no additional regulatory legal acts were adopted for the implementation of this Directive. The development of the regulatory act on access to environmental information, declared by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, was not finalized , and not even a draft was published. Although no steps were taken in the approximation of this Directive, nevertheless, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources pays a lot of attention to the provision of access to environmental information. In particular, according to the
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http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/uk/cardnpd?docid=249935442
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