The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) announced that it will convey to the European Commission on Thursday that Romania opposes Ukraine’s intention – which is not new – to carry out dredging work on the Bastro Canal, saying that it had not been informed by any institution in Romania about the deepening of the canal Bastroe, which Ukrainians would do now. MAE recalls the position of Romania, which does not agree with the proposal to include the branches of the Danube Chilia and Bastroe in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). The reaction came after Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu said on Wednesday that “there are signals that Ukraine is currently dredging the Bastro Canal, which may have an impact on the environment and the Danube Delta.”

The Ministry notes that before information appeared in the press about the Ukrainian authorities conducting work on deepening the so-called “Bastro shipping channel”, it was not informed by any competent Romanian body in the case of Ukraine conducting such activities.

IAE wants to know if the Ukrainians are doing something on Bastro

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania notes that on February 13, it appealed to the administration of the Danube Biosphere Reserve with a request to provide as complete and up-to-date information as possible regarding the possible activities of the Ukrainian side in the sector of the Bastroe navigation channel and the assessment of the institution. their influence, and later also turned to the border police of Romania with a request for the transfer of information obtained as a result of monitoring activities carried out by the Ukrainian authorities or their contractors in the sector of the Bastroe canal, as well as an assessment of their nature.

“Depending on the responses of the competent Romanian authorities, the MAE will immediately take the necessary diplomatic steps if it appears that measures aimed at deepening the navigation route have been carried out.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also notes that the General Directorate for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission has asked the Romanian authorities to provide a point of view on Ukraine’s request to include the Chilia and Bastro Danube branches in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN). -T ), but the public information that the Commission would use such an approach to require Romania’s consent to deepen the so-called “Bastro navigation channel” is not true.

Romania does not agree with the inclusion of the channel in the trans-European network

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also sent during the last year to both the European Commission and the Ukrainian authorities that the Romanian authorities do not agree with the proposal to include the Danube branches Chilia and Bastro in TEN-T (a proposal that is still being implemented by Ukraine since 2014), as it is necessary , so that the project of the navigation channel, which is carried out by Ukraine, strictly complies with the provisions of current international law, including and especially the provisions on environmental protection.

A response to the recent request of the European Commission, which will repeat the same position of disagreement with the proposal to include the Danube branches Chilia and Bastro in TEN-T, should be sent by the MAE based on the input of the competent authorities of Romania (Ministry of Environment, Water Resources and Forests and Ministry of Transport and infrastructure) within the deadline specified by the Commission (February 16),” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement sent to HotNews.ro on Thursday.

IAES emphasizes that consultations were held with the Ministry of Ecology, Water Resources and Forests and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure to form a point of view on the Commission’s request.

Following the IEA’s request to provide the opinion of these institutions, the Ministry of Transport convened a meeting on February 10 to obtain additional details to substantiate the institution’s position in response to the Commission’s request.

Grindyanu: I was informed that dredging works have started on Bastro, they may affect the Delta

The day before, the Minister of Transport Sorin Grindeanu said that “there are signals that Ukraine is currently dredging the Bastro Canal, this may have an impact on the environment and the Danube Delta”, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment should take a position and inform.

When asked about a recent meeting at the Ministry of Transport between representatives of MAE and MMAP regarding the fact that Ukraine has started dredging the Bastro Canal and will do the same on the Kili branch, Grindeanu noted that there are international agreements in place that must be followed. all because we can talk about the possible impact on the Danube Delta and the environment.

“There are some international agreements that we must respect. We provoked this meeting at the Ministry of Transport, although it is not necessarily a matter of MTS. This is more a matter that belongs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Environment, because we are talking about international treaties that everyone must respect, and because we are talking about the possible impact of such dredging operations at Bastroe on the environment and the Danube Delta.

There are issues that… at this point in time we have felt it necessary to act preemptively, although we are not contributors and we are finally waiting for the views of the two ministries. There is no doubt that Romania agreed to the transit of Chile and Bastro at shallower depths for barges and ships that can do so at shallower depths.

Moreover, I think that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the one who will lead this, and that was the point of this meeting, because there are signals that at the moment there is dredging on Bastroe, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Environment – it was the essence of this meeting is that he should put forward a position and report the data,” Grindeanu said.

He said that he received information on this topic at the beginning of last week from the territorial structures of the Ministry of Transport: “In Bastra, I am informed that the work has begun, that is why I called this meeting, that is why I tried to provide data, although this is not the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport “.

“Moreover – and I want to emphasize this – Ukraine is in a difficult situation, we are all trying to help, we are all trying to find a solution to help Ukraine – and here are the countries that are on the border or with the Republic. Moldova, whether with Ukraine – where solutions are being sought to help, and this is what we must do. There is no question. At the same time, we also have to respect international treaties, so I would wait, I would have a little patience, to see what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Environment will tell us about these things,” Grindeanu said.

In December 2020, Ukraine announced that it was abandoning the original project

On May 11, 2004, the Ukrainian authorities began several hydrotechnical works with the aim of implementing a canal on the Kilia and Bastroe tributaries of the Danube, which would offer sea vessels an alternative access route to the ports of the Lower Danube. , – says the press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for March 2021.

The Ukrainian project involved significant dredging on the Bastro branch (located entirely on the territory of Ukraine), the creation of a dam to protect the mouth of the Bastro branch, and dredging at several critical points on the Kilia branch, which forms the border between Romania and Ukraine.

Although, according to the original plan, the Ukrainian project was to be carried out in one phase, it was later decided that it should be divided into two phases, the second of which consisted in increasing the navigable depths obtained as a result of dredging in the first phase and expanding the protective dam from the mouth of the arm Bastro to the Black Sea.

Informed by Romania, several international bodies in the field of environmental protection have determined that the Ukrainian project violates the provisions of numerous international conventions in the field of environmental protection, and have asked the Ukrainian authorities to stop the started work.

Thus, the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube established that the Ukrainian project violates the international provisions on the protection of the waters of the Danube, the Conference of the Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as a habitat for waterfowl. , decided that the provisions of international agreements on the protection of wetlands were violated, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention on the Protection of Wild Flora and Fauna and Natural Habitats in Europe established that the provisions of this international instrument were violated, and the Conference of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention established that during the implementation of the project, Ukrainian companies violated the public’s right to access environmental information.

Most of the significant issues related to the Ukrainian project were resolved within the framework of the Espoo Convention on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context.

As a result of these international efforts, the Ukrainian authorities announced on the occasion of the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Espoo Convention, which took place in December 2020, that they would abandon the initial project and strictly comply with the requirements of the environmental impact assessment at the time of the initiation of the new project to ensure navigational depths. Given, however, that the initial project was partially completed, the Ukrainian authorities were asked to assess the impact of the work carried out so far.

In mid-July 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bohdan Aurescu announced that the Romanian side had agreed to the transit of grain ships from Ukraine through the Chilean Arm and through the Bastro Canal. The construction of this channel by the Ukrainian side is a reason for disputes between Romania and Ukraine. “This is an exceptional situation that we considered as such,” the minister told Digi24.ro.

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