Comparative features of eu and ukrainian legal mechanisms for pollutants discharge regulation

Abstract

The problem of adaptation of the Ukrainian legal regulation of pollutants discharging (RPD) from point sources into surface waters to the EU environmental legislation is being studied. It is noted that the legislative limitation of the receiving of pollutants (P) into water is one of the most relevant and effective ways of ensuring water quality and protecting it from pollution. The basis for adaptation should be comparative studies of the legal mechanisms of the limitation regulation of the environmental legislation of the EU and the water legislation of Ukraine, concentrated in the sub-institutes of RPD of the complex institutes of water quality and its regulation. In the cases of integrated water resources management based on the basin principle (IWRMBP), the main elements of RPD should be included in the river basin management plans (RBMP) and reflected in the year reports. The transition to the modern RPD and its approach to the European counterpart requires a comparative study of the structure and composition of the legal mechanisms of the RPD in the environmental legislation of the EU and Ukraine. The study revealed that the European RPD is fundamentally different from the Ukrainian one in terms of goals, system structure and legal instruments, and is more thorough and detailed. A method of comparing the principles of regulation, legal definitions and regulatory norms of the RPD from five main legislative sources of European environmental law and from two main Ukrainian sources is proposed. For this purpose, a set (scale) of 18 subject-functional features of the mechanism and chain of ecological and legal influence of the RPD was used. It was determined that 51% of the 35 evaluations did not match based on the comparison. Such inconsistency of the regulatory norms of the RPD is determined in relation to the most important features of legal regulation. Conclusions were made that the implementation of the IWRMBP requires a transition to modern European legal relations regarding the RPD, appropriate structuring and detailing of certain requirements for the RBMP.