Robert Horvat appealed to the MOH about the critical situation in the field of mineral water extraction

This was stated by the People’s Deputy of Ukraine on his page in the social network Facebook. 

 "We are continuing to work on creating a European and transparent competitive environment in the field of mineral water extraction. For more than a year, I have been appealing to the Government about the problem with the development of regulations on the safety and quality of food products. The problem was that the Ministry of Health had failed to develop the Hygienic Requirements for Natural Mineral Water on time," – the MP said. 

This delay made it impossible to approve the Hygienic Requirements for Natural Mineral Water, as required by the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Food Products" 1602-VII adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine earlier. This law was adopted due to the need for harmonization of the domestic legislation with EU laws. 

"At last, on December 29, 2017, the Ministry of Health issued a draft order for public discussion," – Robert Horvat said, noting that the published draft partly took into account his comments on compliance with the EU Directives. 

Nevertheless, the MP is concerned about one of the provisions of the darft order released by the Ministry. 

"In particular, the provision about not applying these hygienic requirements to the water, which is subject to pilot commercial development. If this provision remains, then some of the natural mineral water that is currently available at the domestic market can not be recognized as natural mineral water until the end of the pilot commercial development. And it lasts for an average of 5 years." 

According to Robert Horvat, this provision will put domestic producers in unequal conditions with foreign competitors, because in accordance with the EU Directives, they do not have such a restriction. 

In this regard, Robert Horvat once again appealed to the Acting Minister of Health Ulyana Suprun with a request to consider the possibility of taking into account the comments to the draft order of the Ministry of Health when approving the Hygienic Requirements for Natural Mineral Water. In particular, to remove the provision on pilot commercial development. According to the People’s Deputy, this will allow to avoid unfair market competition and will ensure equal rights of domestic and foreign producers.