Ukraine and Romania to step up ecology cooperation - natural resources ministry

MOSCOW. June 28 (Interfax) - Ukraine and Romania have agreed to intensify cooperation in the Danube region and joint work in environmental protection, and are also preparing to sign two agreements on the implementation of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, also known as the Espoo Convention.

The agreement was reached by Ukrainian Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strelets and Romania's Minister of Environmental Protection, Water and Forests Barna Tanczos during their online meeting on June 27, the Ukrainian media quoted Ukraine's Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources as saying on Monday evening.

"Ukraine has joined the Life family, and we have great hope that we will also be able to restore our wildlife as part of this program," Strelets said.

Ukraine has introduced that ministry's EcoThreat official application, which allows every person on the planet to receive round-the-clock information about all changes of ecological parameters in Ukrainian territory, including radiation contamination data, he said.

The Espoo Convention is an international agreement, which was initiated by the United Nations Economic Commission or Europe and entered into effect in 1997. The document allows an assessment of the environmental impact of potentially hazardous projects to be carried out not only within the state in question, but also in adjoining countries, which may be affected as a result of these projects.

Ukraine and the EU on June 24 signed an agreement on joining the Life international ecology program, whose 2021-2027 budget for environmental protection projects stands at 5.43 billion euros.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources has more than 15 specific proposals, which will be transformed into relevant projects and will be submitted to the Life program for consideration.