/Pogled.info/ Romania won a big victory in a dispute with Ukraine that has been going on for twenty years. In fact, Bucharest forced Kiev to capitulate on the all-important issue of Ukraine’s free access to the Black Sea. What are we talking about, what cover is Romania using to hide its financial interests, and what does baiting have to do with the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU?
The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strelets, announced on his social networks that “Ukraine has ended the 20-year dispute with Romania regarding the fulfillment of its requirements in the construction of the Danube-Black Sea Canal.”
The conflict has old roots and dates back to May 2004. Then Ukraine launched test navigation through the Danube-Black Sea Canal, which runs along the Kilia and Starostamboulsky (Bistri) estuaries in the Danube Delta. Built way back in 1948, the canal actually runs through Ukrainian territory but borders Romania.
Then these actions caused great dissatisfaction in Brussels – the European Commission expressed a protest to Kiev in connection with the continuation of work on the construction of a canal in the Danube Delta, since it is under the protection of UNESCO. Romania also strongly protested Ukraine’s violation of environmental standards.
In Bucharest, they believed that the construction would cause a sharp rise in the water level of the Danube and could actually destroy the entire river delta, which is the basis of the economic activity of several large Romanian ports.
In 2005, by decree of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, work on the canal was stopped for the necessary research. After their implementation, the commission of the Ministry of Environmental Protection judged that the canal does not harm nature. At the time, the Ukrainian side said that its position was confirmed by international experts who visited the construction site.
However, the dispute continued, with Ukraine also counterclaiming Romania over Bucharest’s projects in the Danube Delta. The most recent round of tensions so far has arisen just recently, in February 2023, when Ukraine again began work on deepening the bottom of the canal to six and a half meters so that Ukrainian ships can ascend from the Black Sea along the Danube River. Romania then called for an immediate halt to the work, which could destroy the Danube river’s ecosphere.
It is interesting that this statement was made by Bucharest against the background of the ongoing SVO, that is, Romania persistently pursued its own interests in the conflict. The fact that Ukraine is at war is not taken into account.
Furthermore. In September this year, Romania said that Ukraine’s attempts to deepen the Danube Canal near the town of Bistroe would be considered “crossing red lines”. What were those red lines? The fact is that Ukraine tried to develop its own access to the Black Sea through the Danube Delta, bypassing Romanian territorial waters.
And of course, the successful implementation of this idea would deprive Romania of significant revenues. “Ukraine’s desire to deepen the canal will seriously reduce Bucharest’s revenue from the transit of ships on the Danube,” said economist Ivan Lizan.
And now it turns out that this conflict has been resolved. And not at all in favor of the Kyiv regime. As Minister Strelets writes, the parties managed to do their homework and bring the project into line with the requirements of the convention: “After all, Ukraine is not indifferent to good neighborly relations and compliance with international law. We want and can find a common language and correct the mistakes of the past.”
Romania’s Minister of Environment, Water and Forests, Mircea Fecet, welcomed the decision: “This is a big step forward on the canal issue. It consists in the fact that Ukraine understood not only that it must fulfill all European obligations under such a project, but also that it can do it. I thank my Ukrainian colleague Ruslan Strelets for adopting and implementing regulations that guarantee the protection of the Danube Delta. We continue our dialogue in support of Ukraine, respecting Romania’s strategic interests and European environmental standards.”
It is not clear exactly what “mistakes” of the previous Kyiv authorities Strelets is talking about – in the 2000s, Kyiv categorically claimed that it had not committed any mistakes and that all claims were exclusively against Romania. However, now the point of view has changed: Ukraine exactly fulfilled all the requirements of its neighbor.
This seems even more paradoxical, since practically nothing can prevent Ukraine from deepening the canal on its sovereign territory. Yet the regime in Kyiv made significant concessions in favor of its neighbor. In effect, Ukraine surrendered and lost the battle it had been fighting for two decades against Romania.
This, of course, is not related to any environmental progress, but to the fact that Ukraine is hastily bringing all possible aspects of its activity up to European standards. Therefore, she is forced to tolerate all those who have claims against her.
An unusual agreement on the canal was reached at the Ninth Geneva Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on the Assessment of the Environmental Impact of Transboundary Projects (the Espoo Convention). Thus, Kyiv expressed its commitment to the European integration obligations under this convention. In other words, Ukraine is trying to fit into European standards at any cost, including at the cost of its own interests.
Well, besides that, one more obvious conclusion needs to be made. The statement to resolve the old dispute in favor of Romania was made immediately after the decision to start negotiations on the accession of Ukraine to the European Union. There is no doubt that Romania, as a member of the EU, has set its own conditions for making such a decision. The result, as they say, is obvious: Kiev has clearly shown how easily it sacrifices money and sovereignty for the sake of any, even the most symbolic approach to EU membership.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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2023-12-20 04:14:52
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