The saga surrounding the controversial "land" bill No. 2194 is over. On April 28, parliament adopted it in its entirety. As a reminder, the bill was bombarded with thousands of amendments, which took deputies over a month to review.
Attempts to stall the bill in the Verkhovna Rada are no accident. At first glance, the document prescribes land decentralization, transferring land to the ownership of territorial communities. It also supposedly simplifies land registration and eliminates "land bureaucracy." These are the arguments cited by the law's supporters.
However, upon closer inspection, there are many schemes and loopholes that could turn the land market, which, as a reminder, has been open since July of this year, into a real land grab.
Furthermore, another bill, No. 2195, on land auctions, is pending before the Verkhovna Rada. Experts have also found numerous schemes in this bill. Around 700 amendments have already been submitted.
"The country" I figured out how the new land law would work.
The scandalous regulations remained, but new schemes were pushed through through amendments.
We've already written in detail about Bill No. 2194 and the transfer of land to local communities. Lawyers found a multitude of schemes in the document, ranging from effectively allowing the removal and removal of the topsoil, or black soil (this was presented in the draft as a simplification of land oversight) to allowing foreigners to purchase land. While this wasn't explicitly stated, the draft stipulates that a foreign legal entity may create an association comprising Ukrainian legal entities, and these entities, as a reminder, will be allowed to purchase land starting in 2024.
Attempts were made to remove these and other controversial provisions through separate amendments, but with varying success.
Parliament simply rejected the majority of the approximately 3 amendments submitted.
As Batkivshchyna faction leader Yulia Tymoshenko stated at a briefing following the law's adoption, deputies have authorized the purchase of land by foreign legal entities and individuals. Land lease rights can also be sold and pledged without the owner's consent.
Here we are talking about an amendment that passed through the session hall (that is, it was not originally in the draft).
It states that the right to lease land (emphithesis) may be alienated or pledged without the consent of the landowner, except in cases specified by law. The alienation and pledge of the lease right is carried out by a written agreement between the user and the person to whom the alienation or pledge is being made. Such an agreement already serves as the basis for state registration of the transfer of the right of use.
In other words, current land tenants can effectively dispose of their land freely—transferring it to others for use or pledging it as collateral. The landowner, however, is merely a bystander to these processes. If they decide to sell their land, the tenant, again, has the right of first refusal.
Interestingly, the new law opens up previously "untouchable" lands—land under nature reserves, in forest reserves near bodies of water, etc.—to free circulation.
Incidentally, the "amendment spam" saga in the Rada was used precisely to push through new dubious regulations. For example, according to an amendment by Mykola Solsky, head of the Agrarian Committee, which was supported in the session hall, the right to priority land purchase, including agricultural land, was granted to those with special permits for mineral extraction.
Moreover, it is not specified whether mining license holders must be Ukrainian citizens. If there is no such requirement, this means that foreign companies will also be able to purchase Ukrainian black soil through the licensing scheme. This is especially true given that companies already hold numerous so-called "dormant" licenses, obtained in previous years "just in case."
The provision "on the removal of black soil" was also retained from the draft. Formally, the removal of the topsoil must be supported by a working land management project. However, such a project can now be developed either by the landowner themselves or by a specialized firm commissioned by them. Coordination with local land management agencies is no longer required.
In other words, the owner (and even the tenant) of the land can effectively remove and move the topsoil. This has led experts to talk about "exporting the topsoil by the trainload" and selling it abroad.
However, supporters of the new law call all these assumptions “nonsense.”
"If removing land by the trainload is nonsense, then why even consider it in the project? The only thing more irreversible than selling land to foreigners is its removal," says Maksym Oleksiyuk, partner at the law firm KM Partners.
Thus, almost all of the previous scandalous provisions of Project No. 2194 were included in the law; it was not possible to remove them through individual amendments.
But the final version of the law included new, controversial provisions. Since several thousand amendments were made, figuring out what was ultimately included isn't easy. Legal experts say the new land law's "surprises" will continue to surface for a long time. Therefore, the Ukrainian community has yet to fully assess all the pitfalls and schemes of the new law.
However, it's worth noting that the new law, even if signed by the president and enacted, could still be challenged in the Constitutional Court. The Opposition Platform - For Life party has already stated its intention to appeal to the Constitutional Court to assess the law's compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine.
The agricultural community also says the new law is "daunting." "If I buy land in a nature reserve tomorrow under it, it's not a given that the deal will simply be annulled in a few years. The government will change, and it will turn out the law is unconstitutional, and its provisions take precedence and stand above the law," shares a farm owner from the Odessa region.
2 million "severance" hectares
It is worth noting that the new law has many supporters.
"We support the new law. After all, it establishes land decentralization—land outside populated areas will become the property of amalgamated territorial communities," Denis Marchuk, deputy head of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, told us.
"This bill is about powers. Specifically, who should be the land manager in communities. A few historical facts: until 2002, local communities were the land managers. With the adoption of the new version of the Land Code, these powers regarding agricultural land were transferred to district state administrations, and for non-agricultural land, to regional administrations and the Cabinet of Ministers.
In 2013, authority over agricultural land was transferred to the State Geocadastre. And it was precisely in 2013 that the most widespread and uncontrolled land grabbing began. A popular scheme was to distribute land for the creation of farms, which took place without auctions. In fact, this land was not given to actual farmers, but to those who "resolved the issues." Therefore, farms were not created, but rather, land banks of individuals were expanded.
Five years ago, a new scheme was launched—distributing land without auctions for private farming (free 2 hectares—Ed.). In fact, the land was distributed to proxies and then immediately sold, since the OSG (osobiste selyanske gospodarstvo—Ed.) is not under a moratorium. I'm sure if the communities were the land managers, this wouldn't be the case. The situation has reached the point of absurdity—hayfields, vegetable patches, and communal pastures are managed by officials from regional centers, appointed by Kyiv, who have no connection to any particular village. Even land for cemeteries isn't allocated by the community," says MP Oleh Kulinich.
Local authorities not only receive ownership of approximately 2 million hectares of land, but also now have priority rights to control the use and protection of the land.
This means they will be responsible for changing land use designations. Local officials will be able to reclassify land from agricultural use to, say, development land. This will allow it to be purchased by legal entities and foreigners, among others. This land can then be returned to agricultural use in the same way.
For local officials, the emerging land opportunities are literally a gold mine—they could make billions. Some believe Zelenskyy was effectively "bought" by this law to secure local authorities' consent to open the land market.
Previously, in the article "Taking a Share from a Neighbor," Strana reported on how Ukraine plans to consolidate land holdings and what happens to the right to free hectares.
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