OREANDA-NEWS. November 16, 2012. Within the General Assembly, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, the official signing ceremony was held on behalf of the Government of Ukraine of the Articles of the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe and the Agreement on the Legal Status of REC.

This was told by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Eduard Stavytskyi at a press briefing at the Government House, reporting on the results of his visit to Hungary.

"REC enters the network of regional environmental centers operating in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Russia. Was founded by the United States, the European Commission and Hungary in 1990 as an independent, non-profit and non-political international organization that promotes environmental issues and support cooperation between government, business and civil society in the field of environmental protection", Eduard Stavitskyi said.

The Minister added that currently the REC operates on the basis of the Charter, signed by the governments of 31 countries and the European Commission. In addition to donor countries active in REC take dozens of international organizations, among them - the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Development Programme, UNESCO, UNEP, as well as financial institutions and foundations, such as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The Global Environment Facility, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the Italian trust Fund and others.

"The accession of Ukraine to the REC will not only improve the image of the country to fulfill its obligations under the State Environmental Policy of Ukraine until 2020, and the National Action Plan for its implementation, but also lead to higher interest of donor organizations to increase the number of environmental projects in Ukraine and unfreezing of the budget of the European Commission, to implement projects under the REC", said the Minister.

"I hope that this year we will open in Ukraine REC office in Central and Eastern Europe and will begin to work productively after the ratification of the document in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine", - said Eduard Stavitskyi.