The Round Table was conducted within the project “Raising Knowledge among Students and Teachers on Tailings Safety and Its Legislative Review in Ukraine”[1] and aimed to bring attention of the Ukrainian authorities to the problem of the tailings management facilities in the country, disseminate the results of the previous project[2] (TMF project) and unite the efforts of all responsible parties on the implementation of Directive 2006/21/EC provisions that will help to find the practical ways of harmonizing the relevant Ukrainian legislation to European law.
The event began with gathering unusual big for Ukrainian reality quantity of the stakeholders – responsible representatives of the three ministers, five state services and others (see the table below, I. Meeting parties). During the meeting participants not only listened and commented reports about industrial waste large storage facilities problem for Ukraine, National waste management strategy, the analysis of Ukrainian legislation compliance with the requirements of Directive 2006/21/EC and current realization status of Implementation, etc. But also revealed organizational problems in the implementation of named directive, which were not clear before due to the lack of direct interaction: gaps and overlapping of the responsibilities of different bodies.
Of great interest was the report of Iryna Nikolaieva on the processes and results of the TMF projects: Ukrainian and international experts who participated in the study of the problem from 2013; several international meetings per year with the tailings safety experts from all over the Europe; developed method of the tailings hazard index evaluation that can be applied simultaneously to a large number of objects; the methodology of improving TMF safety and its practical testing – applying at five objects in Ukraine; trainings conducted for the students and teachers of the four universities; new educational course and constant improvement of all products, including a detailed assessment of the Ukrainian legislation to identify its weaknesses.
All participants recognized the value of the efforts, support of German agency, results obtained in the submitted projects. And separately CAs, responsible for TMF safety, identified the importance of the Methodology for TMF safety as a tool for preventive actions.
The map of the industrial wastes storages, which also was developed in the project and supplemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR) of Ukraine, has approved and presented at the press briefing by the Minister Ostap Semerak. It was the very first public admission of the problem by the MENR.
A separate important point is that tasks carried out in the projects are fully in line with the work performed by the state to implement the Directive 2006/21/EC in Ukraine. For this reason TMF project products have been accepted by the MENR (as the main beneficiary), are highly appreciated and will play an important role in the future collaborative work of Ministry and project team – these plans were determined during the Round table, the main of them:
- approval of TMF Methodology and its subsequent use as a regulatory or guidance document at waste disposal sites operation and during state supervision (control) activities in the relevant areas;
- updating the database of the TMF (by written requests for each region/oblast);
- carrying out inventory of the TMF and further actions on their closure and reclamation;
- updating the interactive online map
of the hazard objects of Ukraine.
I. Meeting parties:
|
Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine |
Main responsible executor of Implementation Plan for Directive 2006/21/EC |
|
Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine |
Responsible executor of Implementation Plan for Directive 2006/21/EC |
|
Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine |
Responsible executor of Implementation Plan for Directive 2006/21/EC |
|
Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy, Nature Resources Utilization and Elimination of the Consequences of Chornobyl Catastrophe |
Competent authority |
|
State ecological inspection of Ukraine |
Inspection body |
|
State Labour Service of Ukraine |
Inspection body Responsible executor of Implementation Plan for Directive 2006/21/EC |
|
State Emergency Service of Ukraine |
|
|
State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection of Ukraine |
Responsible executor of Implementation Plan for Directive 2006/21/EC |
|
German Environment Agency (UBA) |
Project representative |
|
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe |
Project representative |
|
LLC “Ecoplatform” |
Project representative |
|
National Mining University |
Project representative |
|
Institute of environmental economics and sustainable development of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine |
Project representative |
|
DTEK |
Representatives of industrial enterprises |
|
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) |
Expert on National waste management strategy |
|
National Environmental Agency, Georgia |
Invited expert |
|
Leading scientists and experts on TMF safety |
|
II. Media links
Video of the Press-briefing
https://www.facebook.com/os.semerak/videos/1365198163500344/
News (in Ukrainian)
Photo (on the web-site of the MENR)
[1] This project is funded by the German Federal Environment Ministry’s Advisory Assistance Programme (AAP) for environmental protection in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia and other countries neighbouring the European Union. It is supervised by the German Environment Agency (UBA)
[2] International project “Improving the safety of industrial tailings management facilities based on the example of Ukrainian facilities”, funded by see under footnote 1
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