Farmland market in Ukraine to start operating no earlier than 2022 – lawmaker

Member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agricultural and Land Policy, a representative of the parliamentary group with the Za Majbutne (For the Future) Party Serhiy Labazyuk says Ukrainians should not expect that the country's farmland market would start operating in full from July 1 since a number of negative factors will make the process protracted until 2022.

Read alsoLand reform: Experts elaborate on price of farmland in Ukraine"All Ukrainians expect that in July there will be an opportunity to sell or buy land. In return, we'll receive a 'time bomb' since the law fails to provide a clear procedure for the assessment and sale of land. This is a major loophole in the document," he said in a statement published on the Party's website on March 23.

"Therefore, in the next six months after the opening of the market, the [Verkhovna] Rada [Ukraine's parliament] and the Cabinet of Ministers will be obliged to urgently finalize the legislation and pass the bills that we recommended last year. So, a full-fledged launch of the land market is possible only in this format. Based on my projections, this won't happen before 2022," he added.

According to Labazyuk, bill No. 2178-10 to amend certain legislative acts of Ukraine concerning the turnover of agricultural land passed by the Verkhovna Rada fails to meet the requirements of society and needs additional bylaws.

"For example, controversial bill No. 2195 on auctions and bill No. 2194 on the transfer of land to united territorial communities' administrations, which underwent over 3,000 identical amendments. They should also be adopted by July as a continuation of decentralization reform. Two years ago, representatives of the united territorial communities were promised access to the management of their lands, as first of all it's a full-fledged tool for filling local budgets," he summed up.