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Danish - Ukranian Environmental Co-operation 1993-2002 Chapter 1
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 | The assistance should be focused on the Baltic countries and Poland among the EU accession countries, and on Russia, foremost Kaliningrad oblast’, Leningrad oblast’ and St. Petersburg, among the other CEE/NIS countries. |
| The assistance should continue to concentrate upon environmental assistance. |
| Future environmental projects should, to the extent possible, be implemented through joint implementation. |
Environmental assistance is an important part of overall Danish assistance to Central and Eastern European countries and coordination of the assistance is carried out by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in close collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance.
In the Danish environmental assistance to Eastern Europe priority is given to:
| The main areas – water, waste, the nuclear area, preparation of climate action in the form of joint implementation and institution building – where results can be achieved within a short time horizon. |
| A more flexible transition from bilateral assistance to EU-based assistance when the candidate countries are expected to be accepted in the EU within a few years. |
| Improvement of the environmental situation in the Baltic Region and adjoining regions in Russia; it will be ensured that the Danish bilateral assistance is coordinated with the EU assistance. |
| In the case of the other co-operation countries outside the Baltic Region, rounding-off of the present action and preparation of joint implementation projects. |
The implementation of projects that lie within the framework of the new strategy is based on a number of country agreements and pro-grammes and agreements with the international banks and the EU Commission. The strategy work, which has already produced "Strategy for the Environmental Assistance Programme for Eastern Europe 2001-2006" and "The Environmental Challenge of EU Enlargement in Central and Eastern Europe", together with the changes needed in accordance with the Danish government’s new strategy on assistance to Eastern Europe.
The criteria for the selection of projects are:
| visible environmental effects; |
| investments or legislation to comply with EU requirements; |
| a high degree of co-funding and help in attracting other funds, e.g. EU funds; and |
| transfer of Danish technology and knowledge. |
Since 1991, when Ukraine gained independence, Denmark has provided substantial environmental assistance to Ukraine. In fact, there have been no major investments in environmental infrastructure since the 60’s and 70’s. Consequently, numerous environmental problems do exist in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Government has acknowledged this. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MENR) has been made overall responsible for the development and implementation of environmental policies in line with international standards.
Opportunities have opened up for Ukraine and the MENR through joint implementation projects carried out in co-operation with foreign donors. The long environmental co-operation with Denmark has already provided a positive impact towards solving environmental problems in Ukraine. Further, it has also improved the links to other countries in EU.
As soon as Ukraine has ratified the Kyoto Protocol there will be a need to prepare and implement adequate legislation. Most important is that it will be possible through joint implementation and tradable permits to change the environmentally concerned sector in a more sustainable direction.