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​EUROPEAN COMMISSION HOPES UKRAINE WILL ABIDE INTERNATIONAL LAW AT BUILDING NEW HYDROELECTRIC PLANTS

26 april, 2017

The European Commission hopes that Ukraine will be abiding international laws at planning the building of 6 hydroelectric plants in the Dniester River upstream.

According to head of the International Association of Dniester River Guardians Eco-Tiras Ilia Trombitchi, the official answer of European Commissioner Lawrence Meredith at the request of Moldovan and Ukrainian ecologists on this problem says that the European Union is informed about the situation with building of strategic objects, which may influence the environment, in the region.

“We are carefully watching that the agreements on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which are parts of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, to be fulfilled. We hope that Ukraine will fulfill its duties, including the Aarhus Convention (on access to information, public participation in decision making and access to justice in environmental matters) and the Espoo Convention (on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context)”, the European commissioner said.

According to Trombitchi, it is a political question how insistent the EU will be regarding the Ukraine so that it to fulfill the undertaken liabilities. The answer on it depends on the situation in the EU and the degree of its business with its own problems, as well as on the level of disappointment with Moldova and Ukraine’s behavior in implementing pro-European reforms.

He did not excluded a more active position of the EU, but only in case of a clear position of Moldova’s official authorities, including in the field of its interest in preserving the Dniester River, pointing at the fact that the Parliament did not take any decision concerning the building of six power plants on Dniester.

Infotag’s dossier: Moldovan and Ukrainian nongovernmental organizations for environment protection addressed to the European Commission, heads of the EU delegations to Moldova and Ukraine, the two countries’ governments back in January.

These written addresses says that the commissioning of six new hydroelectric power plants in the Dniester upstream, planned by the Ukrainian Government, will lead to draining of the river, which is the main source of potable water for more than 3 million citizens of Moldova and more than a million people in Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. This may lead to shortage of potable water in the region.

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