The State Service of Ukraine for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship Development has undertaken to deal with the ecological control of vessels in ports of Ukraine once again

April 17, 2014 the State Service of Ukraine for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship Development held a meeting on the issue of the appropriateness of sampling and laboratory research of water from segregated ballast of the vessel by the state environmental inspectors in ports of Ukraine.

Rabomizo Denys, partner and attorney-at-law at Rabomizo, has participated in this meeting together with representatives of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the State Inspectorate of Ukraine for Maritime and Inland Water Transport Safety, business associations, business entities in the field of transport by sea (including insurers and shipping companies), law firms, NGOs and labor unions.

Participants of the meeting have discussed the problem of environmental control of vessels in Ukrainian ports and pointed out the unlawfulness of actions of the environmental inspection to require completion and submission of ship ecological declaration as well as sampling and analysis of segregated ballast water.

After these discussions participants have came to the conclusion that it is of the utmost importance to amend the current legislation of Ukraine as soon as possible in order to forbid

• the use of the ship ecological declaration and
• water sampling from segregated ballast for laboratory research.