Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine sent for a second reading the bill №2194, which provides for the transfer of state-owned agricultural land to communities communal property. Such a development means that doesn’t want the communities to have the opportunity to deal with their own resources. These people want to perpetuate corruption in obtaining numerous approvals, permits, expertise, etc.

The draft law №2194 was discussed publicly. The President, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, the State Geocadastre expressed their support, all major associations represented by UTC, the professional land management community, farmers and landowners.

UAC for a very long time has explained the need of transferring the land to the UTC as an important step for successful land reform realization. After all, the issue of land transfering is long overdue: for almost 20 years, communities have not been able to dispose of their land that are outside of settlements. They were deprived of this right initially in favor of local state administrations, and since 2013 - the State Geocadastre. This has led to a number of problems that hinder their development today: distribution of land to the third parties without taking into account the interests of community residents, inability to simply and legally clearly define communities’ boundaries, burdensome, not clear procedures for approving land management documentation and establishing land boundaries in kind.

The bill has a number of positive consequences:

• land management will be clear and land services and procedures simple
• the abolition of land management expertise will exempt from paying a corruption "tribute" to the officials who specialize in land approvals and expertise
• land use will be clearly controlled by communities and the state
• community boundaries will be established through a clear and cost-neutral procedure
• resolving land issues legal entities will deal with the council of the territorial community, which is controlled by the residents of the community, so they will resolve land issues clearly and honestly
• it will be possible to publicly monitor the fate of the land from the moment of granting permission for its allotment, etc

Thus, the adoption of the bill №2194 would finally allow communities finally to get real power in their territories and strengthen their role in land relations. But yesterday this was prevented.

In order to dispel the myths that spread around the bill, experts from UAC analytical center "Smart Country" are analyzing the voiced theses of the bill opponents. Next week, UAC will initiate an online forum, during which experts will talk in details about the benefits of the bill and the proposals submitted for the second reading.