Ukraine improves its ranking under the EITI Standard
After the second Validation under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Ukraine received the assessment “meaningful progress” with considerable improvements. Moreover, in terms of certain indicators the assessment was “beyond” the requirements of the EITI Standard (in particular, as regards the civil society engagement in EITI implementation and reporting on revenues and expenditures in extractive industries).
The Validation is a special mechanism of assessing the country’s conformity with the EITI Standard, which also includes a qualitative assessment of implementing the already issued recommendations. Thus, the EITI Board agreed that Ukraine has fully addressed three of the eight corrective actions from the country’s first Validation. The EITI Board acknowledged Ukraine’s efforts concerning disclosure of beneficial ownership information, creation of an online EITI reporting portal, and the launch of EITI implementation monitoring and assessment at national level.
This result was achieved thanks to synergy and cooperation among civil society, businesses and public authorities concerned. At the same time, the points that leave room for development must be taken into account as well:
Firstly, the assessment was made under the 2016 version of the EITI Standard; in particular, the Validation did not cover the environmental impact of extractive industries, disclosure of extraction contracts, disaggregation of gender data in reports, and other requirements introduced in the 2019 version of the EITI Standard.
Secondly, there are a number of aspects which Ukraine was suggested to improve in the validation report, for example: combating corruption and illegal extraction, participation of the state and state-owned enterprises, oil and gas transportation revenues, lifting restrictions on information concerning production and reserves of certain extractive commodities, ensuring independence of all stakeholders within the EITI implementation framework.
By April 2023, when the next Validation will take place, Ukraine has time to do its homework and “pull itself up” to the new bar raised by the 2019 EITI Standard. The DiXi Group team will continue actively monitoring and promoting this activity.
The EITI is an independent standard voluntarily maintained at international level, being implemented in more than 50 countries of the world including Ukraine. In order to implement this standard and pursuant to the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement’s requirements concerning reporting by extraction companies (Directive 2013/34/EU), the Extractive Industries Transparency Law was passed in 2018. Presently, the Verkhovna Rada is deliberating on the draft law 3790, aimed to promote greater transparency of the extractive sector and implement anticorruption approaches, particularly through the requirement to disclose extraction contracts.
Olha Polunina, Manager for Sustainable Development at DiXi Group