EUROPEAN WATER PROTECTION PARADIGM IN UKRAINIAN LEGAL REGULATION OF POLLUTANT DISCHARGES INTO SURFACE WATERS

Abstract

The paradigmatic principles of legal regulation of pollutants discharging into the surface waters of Ukraine are being studied in connection with the transition in 2024 to European legislation in the fight against industrial pollution, namely: adoption of the Law of Ukraine «On Integrated Prevention and Control of Industrial Pollution»; approval of Ukrainian river basin management plans; creation of a classification system for surface water bodies. The purpose of the article is to determine the scientific content and general nature of the changes that occur in the Ukrainian legal mechanism for regulating pollutant discharges (RPD) as a result of the transition from the outdated Ukrainian paradigm of legal regulation, which has existed for more than half a century, to the modern European paradigm according to the ecological and legal principles currently recognized by the world community, in order to harmonize the subinstitutions of the RPD of Ukrainian and European water legislation. It was found that both Ukrainian and European RPD are based on limiting-type legal instruments, namely on standards of state and of properties of a water body, and on standards of impact on the state of the same water body. The outdated Ukrainian RPD paradigm is economically centric and consists in the economical use of the environmental properties of area of a water body near discharge, which is used to reduce the harmful effects on humans and on the environment from substances discharged with returned water. Such a paradigm generates definitions of impact standards values which needs in complex calculations and has a conjunctive logic of relationship between impact standards and standards of state. The European paradigm for most substances is ecosystem-centric, does not provide for the use of the environmental properties of a water body for economic purposes, is non-calculated, and its logic of relationship between impact standards and state standards is (exclusive) disjunctive. Currently, both RPD paradigms are existing in Ukrainian water quality protection. For water use during the war period on unoccupied territories and in the post-war period throughout Ukraine, the European paradigm is more preferred and acceptable.