While Ukraine is also likely to be granted additional time to meet these targets, efforts towards compliance will need to start soon, otherwise there is a risk that this could become an obstacle in Ukraine’s accession negotiations on environment.
A landfill tax, which has been successfully implemented in various EU countries to discourage landfill use, is currently being considered in Ukraine. Although legislation is still in the draft phase and no final decisions have been made, support for this initiative would come at a highly opportune moment and could make a major difference in helping Ukraine to progress meeting EU standards. For that reason, this component includes providing foundational legal advice, along with drafting guidelines and recommendations to support this transition. Another good reason for choosing this component is that a landfill tax provides a potential source of revenue for municipalities to fulfil their decentralised responsibilities in waste management.
The aim is to assist the Ukrainian government with the introduction of a landfill tax in Ukraine, leveraging European practices to make this an effective policy tool. This will involve sharing knowledge and adapting successful strategies from other countries to the Ukrainian context. Actions include gathering and analysing relevant experiences, offering expert advice on tax collection and municipal involvement, addressing issues like charging mechanisms and financial flows, and drafting legal and implementation guidelines.
To support this endeavour, a specialised task force will be established in Ukraine, comprising focus groups among end users and pilot testing in selected areas. The consultancy will draw upon experiences from Sweden and another country, ensuring close collaboration with MinEnv, MinDevelopment and the Ministry of Finance, and coordinating with SwEPA
The component is slated to begin in 2025, aiming for completion between 2025 and 2027 while retaining flexibility for additional support until the end of the programme period should the need arise. While the outcome of a well-developed and well-adapted proposal, ready for implementation, can be assured with a high degree of confidence, the actual enactment and implementation of this proposal naturally depends on capacity and political will at the ministerial level, and on the timing of legislative decisions at the parliamentary level.
Component 6
Landfill Tax
Support for implementation of a landfill tax.
Disposal in landfills comes at the bottom of the EU’s “waste hierarchy”, below recovery (e.g. in the form of energy), reuse, recycling and (best of all) prevention. In view of this, Ukraine faces a significant challenge. Only a select few of its landfills comply with EU standards, prompting an urgent push to shut down current sites and transition to modern, compliant facilities that can serve multiple municipalities. But even the most modern facilities are being phased out in the EU, which has set ambitious goals to reduce the share of municipal waste ending up in landfills to 10% by 2035 (2040 for some countries).