The training workshop on “Current Issues of the Strategic Environmental Assessment Procedure in Ukraine: Legal Aspects” took place on 25 May 2023.
Meeting objectives, expected outputs and outcomes
- To familiarize the target audience with Ukraine’s international commitments to implement SEA, and to discuss how the SEA is specifically embedded within the Ukrainian legal system;
- To introduce the main regulatory and legal requirements for SEA and related current amendments;
- To present the latest changes and developments in urban planning legislation.
Participants
Representatives of relevant departments (environmental protection, healthcare, urban planning and architecture) in Ukraine’s regional administrations and Kyiv city state administration, as well as representatives of local self-government bodies.
Background
Within the framework of the European Union-funded EU4Environment programme, UNECE is assisting the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, including Ukraine, in comprehensive capacity-building and institutional building on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and in finalizing legal reforms in this area.
SEA is a relatively new tool for implementing the country’s environmental policy based on a simple principle: it is easier to prevent negative environmental effects at the planning stage of a strategic document rather than identifying and remedying them during its implementation. The SEA of state planning documents, particularly urban planning documents, enables a comprehensive evaluation of the likely environmental, including health, effects of the plans and using evaluation results to prevent or mitigate adverse effects on the environment in the spatial planning process.
The objective of the SEA is to promote sustainable development of territories/areas by providing for a high level of protection of the environment, including health of the population, and integration of environmental considerations into the development and adoption of state planning documents.
The first of the two training workshops in May 2023 had the target audience focus on the specifics of the carrying out of the SEA procedure, particularly for urban planning documentation, in line with Ukrainian legislation and the country’s commitments to implement SEA under its Association Agreement with the EU and the UNECE Protocol on SEA with a view to strengthening the institutional capacity of regional administrations and Kyiv city state administration, as well as local self-government bodies.