ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih carries out its business activities in accordance with effective legislation of Ukraine and expects respective actions and attitude from public authorities and local government bodies. According to article 19 of the Constitution of Ukraine, public authorities and local government bodies, their officials must act only based on and within their powers and in a way established by the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine. This constitutional legal norm provides protection against illegal acts of public authorities whatever the justification for these acts is. In other case, it is impossible to speak about the rule of law in the country.
State Environment Inspectorate in Dnipropetrovsk region (SEI) carried out its previous inspection of compliance with the requirements of environmental legislation with respect to atmospheric air during the period from April 9 to 22. It is obvious that such an inspection was not the first activity of state environmental control with respect to ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih.
However, on June 20 the representatives of SEI arrived at the plant again with the same purpose that was the repeat start of unscheduled inspection of compliance with the requirements of environmental legislation with respect to atmospheric air protection. This inspection was initiated based on application of an individual, a member of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council who, according to open source information, was a parliamentary candidate at one of single-mandate districts of Kriviy Rih. It may happen that manipulation with the name of international company, calls for actual fight against the plant is one of the methods to increase the number of votes during the elections.
On June 19 State Regulatory Service (SRS) of Ukraine published its official position, wherein it emphasized compliance with processes of law by all public authorities during the inspections. SRS of Ukraine insists that controlling authority must use only unified acts forms in accordance with new Methodology approved by the Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated May 10, 2018. The position of SRS notes particularly the following: “If state supervision (control) body failed to approve and publish on its official web-site unified acts forms, business entity is entitled not to allow the officials of state supervision (control) body to perform the supervision (control)”. An attempt to carry out an inspection using “outdated” acts violates the principles of rule of law, legal certainty and is not in compliance with the provisions of effective legislation of Ukraine.
Because of violations by SEI, considering article 19 of the Constitution of Ukraine, perceiving such inspection as a pressure on the company by the stakeholders, the administration of ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih decided to deny the access of the representatives of environment inspectorate to carry out the inspection. (AMKR/Ukrainian metal)
