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The Ukrainian parliament has reached the goal by approving a document of strategic importance, without which the implementation of the agrarian reform, the start of which was announced on July 1, 2021, is practically impossible. The authorities have already called this document “Constitution of the Earth”.
We are talking about bill 2194 to improve the management and deregulation system in the field of territorial relations, to which the popular deputies have submitted more than 3,000 modifications. On Tuesday, March 16, the Rada began considering this bill at second reading, but work on the amendments is progressing slowly. The chairman of the Golos faction, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, said on his Telegram channel that the negotiations of the heads of the factions to speed up the amendment process ended in nothing, and then similar meetings await the Rada until the end of the week, along with extraordinary meetings after the main ones.
Considering that the approval of this bill is expected in the European Commission (to improve cooperation with the government) and in the International Monetary Fund (to provide the next tranche of the loan), we can hope that it will soon be adopted by the parliament. . In addition, apart from the Rada, they do not even rule out “night shifts” to finalize the document. What will change for Ukrainians with the approval of bill 2194, how will it simplify the procedures for registering land parcels and help to overcome corruption schemes in the land sector?OBOZREVATEL understood.
1. Land for communities
The main idea of the bill is to transfer land “to the ground” and create a basis for deep decentralization. The right to dispose of the land outside the settlements will be obtained by the local governments through the mechanism of land auctions.… In fact, local communities are regaining the right that was deprived of them in 2002.
Now local authorities control no more than 10% of non-privatized state lands. But the rest of the arsenal is at the disposal of the officials of the state Geocadastre, who, to put it mildly, were not always guided by the interests of the communities, for years creating artificial bureaucratic obstacles and massive corruption in the process of acquisition of the right. down to earth for the citizens.
Therefore, with the adoption of Bill 2194, all state lands outside the settlements, except lands under state ownership, are transferred to the communal property of local communities. On, The powers of the local self-government bodies in the field of territorial relations are significantly expanded.… In particular:
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local communities can independently change the purpose of land parcels private property;
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communities are provided the right to approve plans for detailed planning of the territory outside the settlements, that is to say. It is possible, at your discretion, to decide how such territory will be built, used and improved;
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Local self-government bodies are given the right to fight against the unauthorized occupation of plots and the misuse of land outside the settlements. For this purpose The communities are endowed with the functions of state control over the use and protection of the land.b, who are now attached to the state Geocadastre;
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local authority may approve documentation on land use planning and urban planning within the entire territory of the united territorial community (including outer settlements);
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local governments Full access to the State Land Cadastre is provided., they have the opportunity to provide any cadastral information.
2. Elimination of corruption schemes
Under Bill 2194, the state Geocadastre finally loses his superpowers to manage the lands and control their use. Really, this state body ceases to exist as the main territorial authority in Ukraine and becomes a “service center”… The service will cease to perform regulatory and supervisory functions, and its employees will monitor the operation of electronic services to collect and record information, and will maintain the Geospatial Data Registry.
It is noteworthy that previously the state Geocadastre went through five reorganizations, but none worked. The body, which was originally created as a department of services, which was to deal with the technical issues of land cadastral registration, organization of topographic and geodetic works of national importance, maintenance of a territorial planning documentation fund, etc., eventually it became a powerful “state corporation” that transformed territorial relations into the most corrupt sphere of government.
Thousands of bribery cases can be found in the Unified Registry of Court Decisions, while a large part of them refer precisely to land issues and abuses by the state agencies of the Geocadastre. The authors of the bill hope that the elimination of such a body with the powers and in the way it works today, will “kill” hundreds of corruption schemes in territorial legal relations.
3. Elimination of bureaucratic barriers
A fairly large block in bill 2194 is dedicated to deregulation in the field of land management: unnecessary approvals regarding the formation of parcels are removed. In particular:
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state institute of land management experience canceled… Significantly slows down the process of building or evaluating a site. The cost of this service now varies between 20 UAH and 3% of the estimated cost of design and study work (and this can be hundreds of thousands of UAH), and the time spent on its implementation is up to 20 days;
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The land administration documentation will be checked only once. – at the stage of filing declarations to the State Land Registry. Now there is a triple control: when the documentation is coordinated by the competent state bodies, the state Geocadastre conducts a land management examination and the entry of declarations in the zemkadastre. The environmental protection and cultural heritage authorities will only provide information on the restriction of land use, and will not agree on the documentation, as is the case now;
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The concept of agrochemical land certification is eliminated.… A document as quasi-permissive as an agrochemical passport has had nothing to do for a long time with the protection of the soil, usually it is drawn up with bribes and even without leaving the site;
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instead of state supervision in the field of spatial planning and topographic and geodetic activities Mandatory performer liability insurance for clients is introduced. due to mistakes made in preparing the documentation… If the surveyor makes a mistake, the client will receive compensation from the insurance company and will hire another contractor;
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Unnecessary and duplicate licensing procedures are eliminated.… For example, the preliminary approval procedure of materials for the location of an object on a plot of land is suppressed, since all this information is already in the urban documentation. In addition, special permits for the removal and transfer of land cover from the plots are being eliminated. Instead, a general rule is introduced: removal of the fertile soil layer is not allowed without development and observance of the working draft of land management;
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The need to obtain approval to change the designated purpose of a land in various government agencies is canceled., including in the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada regarding especially valuable lands;
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Adjacent communities have the opportunity to independently determine the common boundaries of their territories. by agreement between them, without the intervention of any government agency. Now one of the problems is the uncertainty of the limits of said territories and, consequently, the scope of the communities’ jurisdiction;
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Certified surveyors are granted the right to be state cadastral registrars.… Such a registrar should be in all local governments. This is a pilot project, the order will be determined by the Cabinet. The term of the project is until the end of 2022. Once this period is over, the parliament must decide to consolidate these rights permanently;
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the “paper” bureaucracy is avoided… The documentation on land use planning and the technical documentation on land valuation will be developed exclusively in electronic format and certified by the developer’s electronic signature.
4. Maximum transparency and openness of the land market.
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Non-agricultural land market opens up to foreigners – The Land Code excludes regulations that limit the ability of foreign natural and legal persons to acquire non-agricultural land free of construction outside the settlements. This rule is now the one that is causing the most criticism among the people’s deputies.
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Inserted total openness and accessibility of documentation on land use planning, publicity of its consideration… In addition, citizens, authorities and documentation developers will have full access to the State Fund for Land Management and Valuation Documentation, which will now be held exclusively in electronic format. For its part, the State will guarantee unconditional compliance with the legislation on personal data protection.
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To ensure publicity of land use A monitoring system is being implemented, for which the state Geocadastre will be responsible. The frequency of follow-up is every three months. This system will allow everyone to receive generalized data on the amount of land owned by a particular natural or legal person.
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The procedure for acquiring property rights was finalized. based on acquisitive prescription. If a person has used a parcel of land for 15 years, but has no rights to it, they can apply to the local authorities and privatize the parcel.
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People who have the right to permanent use of a land parcel or the right to lease (after permanent use registration) have the opportunity to buy land parcels at a standard monetary value (without auction) with installment payment for 5 years . . That is to say, The right of first refusal to buy a leased land is established..
Recall that on March 31, Verkhovna Rada supported the launch of the land market in Ukraine in general. The bill “On the rotation of agricultural land” was supported at the request of the IMF and following the urgent request of President Volodymyr Zelensky. In fact, this bill lifted the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land as of July 1, 2021.
However, the agrarian reform is not limited to a single law on rotation, and the “agrarian package” of reforms includes around a dozen more bills, the purpose of which is to guarantee maximum transparency in land management. Bill 2194, together with the land auction bill, are key documents for the full launch of the agrarian reform.
