Decree No. 391 of the Cabinet of Ministers validating the Regulation on state environmental monitoring.

State environmental monitoring system is a system of monitoring, collecting, processing, transmitting, storing and analyzing information on the state of the environment, forecasting its changes and developing scientifically sound recommendations for decision-making to prevent negative changes in the environment and compliance with environmental security. This Regulation determines the procedure for the establishment and operation of such a system in Ukraine. Monitoring system is an integral part of the national information infrastructure, compatible with similar systems of other countries. The monitoring system is an open information system, the priorities of which are the protection of vital environmental interests of person and society; preservation of natural ecosystems; prevention of crisis changes in the ecological state of the environment and prevention of ecological emergencies. Creation and operation of a monitoring system with a view of integrating environmental information systems covering certain areas is based on the principles of: (a) consistency of regulatory and legal and organizational and methodological support, compatibility of technical, informational and software of its components; (b) systematic observations of the state of the environment and technological objects that have impact thereon; (b) timeliness of receiving, complexity of processing and use of information on the state of the environment (ecological information) received and stored in the monitoring system; and (c) objectivity of primary, analytical and forecast information on the state of environment (ecological information) and efficiency of its submittal to public authorities, local government, public organizations, mass media, the population of Ukraine, international institutions concerned and the global community.