On November 7, 2013 the Port Development Chamber’s working group held a meeting to discuss the issue of environmental monitoring of marine vessels in the ports of Ukraine. Andriy Selyutin, Counsel and Head of Arzinger’s South Ukrainian Branch delivered a presentation entitled “Segregated ballast sampling.”

In his presentation Andriy Selyutin told that according to international conventions segregated ballast, i.e. ballast that is not mixed with fuel and lubricant, shall not be subject to restrictions, whereas Ukrainian ecologists (1) require its inspection, (2) prohibits its reversion, which makes the loading of the vessel impossible. In this case, ecologists can justify their actions: as opposed to international law, the Environmental Control Procedure approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources provides for the right to carry out segregated ballast sampling.

Andriy noted, in particular, that the courts disregard the rules of MARPOL and take the side of the inspectors, justifying their actions by saying that once the bylaw, which provides for the authority of inspectors to check the vessel’s environmental declaration, is valid and has not been canceled, such a declaration must be filed (in violation of provisions of the international treaty). In the opinion of some judges, the captain’s obligation to provide such a declaration (in violation of the Constitution, which establishes that any obligations must be directly provided by the law) is based on inspectors’ authority to check the availability of an environmental declaration. Moreover, such a trend has appeared recently. Before, the courts often deemed the actions of inspectors illegal.

He also pointed to the fact that the issue of human rights of vessel owners in the environmental monitoring is not only abuse of powers by inspectors of the State Ecological Inspectorate, but also the absence of an effective mechanism to protect the violated rights.

Speaking about the discharge of ballast water in Ukrainian ports, Andriy noted another problem arising in the course of environmental control marine vessels have to pass. The point was that inspectors of the State Environmental Inspectorate require ballast sampling, or rather that no procedure for ballast sampling in the course of environmental control is prescribed by legislation.