THE FOURTH MEETING OF THE EU4ENVIRONMENT REGIONAL ASSEMBLY
The Fourth EU4Environment Regional Assembly gathered in Paris on 22 and 23 September 2022. The event was held in a hybrid format, so live communication took place in the International Energy Agency, and those who could not come in person joined the event via Zoom.
The main objectives of this event were to:
– take stock of the Programme implementation and showcase the main achievements;
– review the updated country specific and regional work plans for 2022-23;
– review the governance arrangements and discuss the implementation of the communication activities.
In the afternoon of the first day, a special session (item 4, Agenda) was dedicated to the implementation of the EU4Environment programme in Ukraine. Ms. Chloé Allio, Head of Section “Economic Cooperation, Energy, Infrastructure and Environment” represented the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine. Ukraine was represented by Mr. Evgeniy Fedorenko, Deputy Minister, Ministry of the Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Ukraine. He highlighted Recent developments in Ukraine, impacts of the war on the environment, preparation of the Reconstruction/Recovery Plan, including its environmental part.
The next day, on September 23, in the morning, the section chaired by Ms. Tatiana Chernyavskaya, Project Manager, UNIDO, was devoted to waste mapping in six pilot regions of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine. In Ukraine, these were two communities – Slavuta city and Davydiv village territorial communities. Ms. Emma Danielsson and Mr. Alastair Carruth, UNIDO International Circular Economy Experts (Sweco International AB), reported on all scope of activities done, starting from the search for pilot communities and ending with the development of a report with conclusions and recommendations for improving waste management situation in Ukraine. Importantly, the reports offered advice on how to get financial, material and environmental benefits from the waste mapping approaches.
In the afternoon, the session “IWM Guidelines for EaP countries: Key lessons learnt and recommendations for stakeholders to promote circular economies”, Volodymyr Popovych, Regional Coordinator of the RECP Centre in Western Ukraine, and 2 representatives from the selected communities – Iryna Terekh from Davydiv VTC and Halyna Darchyk from Slavuta CTC – were given the floor. Ukrainian representatives briefly presented challenges, achievements and lessons learned, and thanked EU4Environment Programme for the unique opportunity to join the pilot industrial waste mapping study.
The meeting brought together the National Focal Points from the Ministries of Environment and of Economy of Eastern Partnership countries, the National Action Coordinators, representatives of the European Commission and the EU Delegations, EU Member States, civil society, and the EU4Environment Implementing Partners (OECD, UNECE, UNEP, UNIDO, and the World Bank).
