Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ostap Semerak, and Commissioner for Maritime affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella agreed to begin the first consultations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU’s Life Plus program and the acquisition in the future of partner status in the European Environment Agency, the press service of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine said.
Such a partnership of Ukraine will allow local communities to get financing for environmental projects at the local level, Semerak explained after the meeting with Vella in Brussels (Kingdom of Belgium).
“This means to learn how to develop such projects in the regions and then introduce them. By the way, the environmental fund is a good resource for co-financing such projects,” Semerak said.
He also noted that Ukraine is already implementing a number of projects jointly with the European Environment Agency, but the official partnership will allow reaching a new level of cooperation.
“Getting a new status in the Agency is a prospect that will require a lot of work, but this way should be started. It will finally allow introducing in Ukraine the European instruments for assessing the state of the environment, and hence, on this basis, make decisions where exactly it is necessary to act,” Semerak said.
The Ministry of Ecology recalled that Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Semerak was on a working visit to Brussels, where he already had meetings with the Commissioner for Maritime affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella and Co-chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee Dariusz Rosati, leader of the “Friends of European Ukraine” informal group Petras Austrevicius, as well as MPs Mark Huller and Rebecca Harms.
