You're reading: Yanukovych signs law on ratification of protocol on Ukraine’s accession to Energy Community

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has signed a law on the ratification of the protocol on Ukraine's accession to the Energy Community.

A respective order was signed by the president on Dec. 28, 2010.

As reported, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, on Dec. 15, 2010, ratified the protocol on the country’s accession to the Energy Community.

The treaty establishing the Energy Community took effect on Jul. 1, 2006. The community’s members are the European Union countries, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo.

Ukraine’s accession to the Energy Community is expected to encourage investment in the country’s energy sector and permit Ukrainian companies’ free access to the EU markets.

At the same time, Ukraine undertook to meet a number of conditions and directives put forth by the European Union concerning the environmental modernization of the Ukrainian energy sector, in particular, the 2001/80/EC directive "on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from large combustion plants (the LCP Directive)." The environmental modernization concerns mainly thermal power plants and requires the investment of considerable amounts of funds in the renovation of power units with the installing of advanced electrical precipitators and desulfurization systems.

This directive, which foresees a reduction in emissions by 15-20 times, is to be implemented within a tight schedule – before 2018.

According to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest privately owned vertically integrated energy company, the spending of Ukraine’s power industry on meeting these conditions and directives is estimated at $20 billion.