Government’s bill No. 2178 about the turnover of farmland has been submitted to Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada and sent to the profile committee.
According to information on the parliament’s website, the bill was registered on September 25. It provides for the abolition of the ban on sale of farmland of all forms of ownership from October 1, 2020.
According to the document, citizens and legal entities of Ukraine, territorial communities, and the state can buy farmland.
At the same time, the bill proposes to deprive individuals and legal entities, foreign states that are subject to the sanctions law, of the right to purchase land.
“Foreigners and stateless persons may obtain ownership rights to farmland by succession prescribed in the law, but are required to sell them within one year from the date of obtaining ownership rights,” the government said in the document.
The bill sets the minimum starting price for the sale of land plots in public and communal property at land tenders at a level not lower than the standard monetary value, ensures the right of citizens to buy back land for farming, owned by them on a permanent use right basis and inherited tenure rights in installments paid during up to five years at a price equal to the standard monetary value of such land plots.
The document provides the tenant’s pre-emptive right to purchase a land plot, provides for the obligation of the state registrar to place information on the price (value) of property rights, including use rights, in the register of ownership rights.
The total area of farmland owned by a citizen or a legal entity of Ukraine, taking into account affiliated persons: within one region should not exceed 15% of farmland of such an area and 0.5% of farmland of Ukraine, according to the bill.
In addition, in order to obtain data on the total area of farmland owned by one person and affiliated persons, the software of the State Land Cadastre must provide information interaction with the public register of ownership rights to real estate and the unified public register of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and public organizations.
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has passed at first reading bill No. 1056-1 on protection of ownership rights, ceasing activities of accredited entities in the sphere of public registration of ownership rights. As an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported, bill No. 1056-1 at the plenary meeting on September 12 was supported by 327 MPs.
“The bill is aimed at providing additional guarantees for the protection of ownership rights in Ukraine, and provides for the removal from the market of the so-called accredited entities – nongovernmental organizations that regularly, unfortunately, performed the functions of “black registrars” and were one of the elements of criminal schemes,” one of the initiators of the bill, MP Olena Shuliak (the Servant of the People parliamentary faction) said.
The document also introduces the principle of simultaneous notarization of a legal act and public registration of emerging rights, and obliges to notarize certificates on disposing corporate rights.
In addition, the bill provides for increased liability for violations of registration procedures.
The president’s bill about farmland turnover in Ukraine, which should be published within two weeks, allows legal entities to participate in the land market, acting Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine Olha Trofimtseva has said. “The president’s position regarding legal entities is quite liberal and this is one of the disagreements that exist between us. I believe that certain restrictions, safeguards should be established at the first transitional stage, I advocate a phased opening of the market and, accordingly, its phased liberalization,” she said at a press conference.
According to Trofimtseva, the presidential bill is based on the government’s bill.
“The changes that will be made in it concern legal entities, I think we will see it soon, it will be introduced in the Verkhovna Rada as the president’s bill, but this will be the subject of discussion after the first working day of the Verkhovna Rada, after the formation of the new Cabinet [of Ministers]. This is a question of a week or two,” the acting minister said.
In addition, Trofimtseva said that as part of the land reform, at least six or seven bills will be presented that will be aimed at the normal functioning of the land market.
BILL, FARMLAND, LEGAL ENTITIES, MARKET, PARTICIPATE, TURNOVER
The average bill of a foreign patient who is treated in Ukrainian clinics, is $2,000-2,500, not taking into account transport and accommodation costs, the Ukrainian Association of Medical Tourism (UAMT) said at a roundtable devoted to medical tourism in Ukraine, the situation with it and its prospects held in Kyiv last week.
According to UAMT, currently in Ukraine, about 120 clinics in different regions of Ukraine receive foreign patients.
According to UAMT Head Violetta Yanyshevska, the most attractive for foreign patients in Ukraine are plastic surgery, dentistry, sanatorium-resort treatment, reproductive technologies, rehabilitation, treatment of ophthalmologic diseases, heart surgery and cell therapy. She said that the leaders in receiving foreign patients in Ukraine are reproductive clinics. At the same time, Yanyshevska said that in matters of medical tourism, “this is not about competition between clinics, but about competition between countries.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has sent to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine a bill amending some laws of Ukraine on cutting electricity tariffs.
The document was registered in the parliament on June 26. The text of the bill has not been made public.
As reported, representative of the head of state in the Ukrainian government Andriy Gerus said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initiated the legislative change of the Rotterdam+ formula by the Rotterdam- formula in order to reduce electricity tariffs. He said that according to the document, the cost of shipping coal from Rotterdam to Ukraine should be removed from the formula. In addition, it is proposed that discounts be introduced if the quality of coal is worse. The bill also provides for a delay in the introduction of the electricity market for one year.
Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky has told Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius that his team had prepared a bill reimposing liability for illegal enrichment.
At the meeting Linkevicius reminded that the West was watching especially closely anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine, Zelensky’s press service said. “The decriminalization of illegal enrichment runs counter to Ukraine’s obligations to the European Union,” Linkevicius said.
Zelensky also asked for help with setting up an international media organization to broadcast pro-Ukrainian position to the temporarily occupied Ukrainian areas.
He thanked Lithuania for consistently defending Ukraine’s interests in Europe.
Linkevicius in turn congratulated him on winning the election and offered help with implementing reforms in combating corruption and the law enforcement system.
European organizations in Brussels are very interested in the Ukrainian president-elect, Linkevicius said, offering Zelensky to visit EU-level international events at the first opportunity.
