The commission Romania- the Republic of Moldova – Ukraine will monitor the impact of the Bastroe canal

A trilateral commission made up of the representatives of Romania, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova will monitor,for a year, the impact of the navigation canal Bastroe, according to the recommendation of the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention reunited between 1-4 December in Strasbourg. ‘ One of the issues analysed during the reunion was the Bistroe file, the recommendation imposed by the Bern Convention which refers to the circulation on the canal and the transborderly impact of the activity on the environment. Presenting recent studies and showing that the impact is not major, Ukraine required the closing down of the file, while the Romanian party showed that there is a certain transborderly impact’ stated on Monday the governor of the Danube Delta Reserve Romania, Lucian Simion, participant in the reunion in Strasbourg. In this context, the members of the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention decided that the Bistroe file must stay open another year, according to the quoted source. ‘It was decided that the file stays open for another year, period when the trilateral commission will have to assume the task to monitor the effects of navigation on the Bistroe canal and that of establishing monitoring rules’ mentioned the governor Simion. According to the source, on the basis of trilateral agreement, the trilateral commission Romania-Ukraine-the Republic of Moldova set up following the monitoring of the environment factors in this transborderly area, to have attributions, including as regards the Bistroe canal. Starting with 2010, Ukraine required the closing down of the Bistroe file,openedin 2004 bythe reunion of the standing council of the Bern Convention for the breach of the provisions of the convention and issued the recommendation no.111 which aims at the suspension of the works on the Bistroe canal, not to go to the next stage of the project without an evaluation of the environment impact for stage II. At the same time,the Convention decided to supply additional information regarding the ecological and socio-economic aspects of the alternative solutions and the viable options for the development of the navigation in the Ukrainian part of the Danube, to consolidate a vast area strictly protected, where to stop antropic intervention, thus placing the economic activities outside this protected area which could negatively affect the biological diversity. In 2001,the Ukrainian authorities announced their intention to re-shape the Bistroe canal for navigation, the attempts at that time were not finalised following the protests of the NGOs which drew the attention with regards to the possible negative effects of the works on the Danube Delta eco-systems. In 2004,the works on Bistroe canal were finalised in spite of the critics on the part of the Romanian authorities, of the European Commission and the NGOs,the Romanian party considering that the canal can have devastating effects on the Delta. The first stage of execution was finalised on 26 August 2004 and were included works of dredging on the itinerary Vilcovo-the Black Sea as well as the construction of a canal of 3.3 km, width of 100 metres,depth of 7.65 m and a protection pier situated at the north of the canal. The second stage meant the construction of a fairway of 180 km from Reni to the Black Sea,according to the authorities. The construction of the canal is a breach, according to the ministry of foreign affairs in Romania several international and bilateral regulations in the domain of international environment and waters which is applied at the region of Bastroe canal,among which the convention on wetlands, of international importance, especially as habitat of the aquatic birds (RAMSAR 1971), the convention regarding the conversation of wild life and natural habitats in Europe (Bern, 19 September 1979),the convention regarding the evaluation of the impact on the environment in transborderly context (ESPOO, 1991), the convention for biological diversity (Rio de Janeiro, 1992). The Danube Delta Reserve includes surfaces situated both in Romania and Ukraine.In Romania the Danube Delta has a triple status of protected area, UNESCO natural heritage site, wetland for international importance starting with 1990 ( according to the convention on wetlands, Ramsar) and the biosphere reserve in the programme ‘ Man and Biosphere’.