The Ukrainian Grain Association, uniting European, international and Ukrainian grain companies and being one of the leading agribusiness public associations in Ukraine, has addressed itself to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Transport Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy, Natural Resources Use and Liquidation of Chornobyl Disaster Consequences, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Budget Affairs, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Corruption Prevention, and the Verkhovna Rada Committee on European Integration, asking to support the Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine to Ensure the Inviolability of Property Rights and Other Proprietary Interests on Real Estate and Land to the Owners of Separated Sea Terminals” (registration No.3675) (hereafter referred to as the Draft Law).
In particular, the letter from the Ukrainian Grain Association contains the following text.
On December 18, 2015, the People’s Deputies of Ukraine of the 8th convocation A.O. Vadaturskyy, A.O. Ilyuk, I.G. Furin, D.B. Makaryan initiated and registered in the Verkhona Rada the Draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine to Ensure the Inviolability of Property Rights and Other Proprietary Interests on Real Estate and Land to the Owners of Separated Sea Terminals” (registration No.3675) (hereafter referred to as the Draft Law).
The given Draft Law provides for the legal consolidation of special status for separated sea terminals constructed outside sea ports on the land which is territorially separated from them prior to the Law of Ukraine “On Sea Ports of Ukraine” came into effect. This has a great value to protect investor rights and to develop the marine and economic sector.
First of all, the Draft Law provides for the existence of separated sea terminals outside a sea port.
Thus, a separated sea terminal is a territorially separated single property complex, constructed and put into operation prior to the Law of Ukraine “On Sea Ports of Ukraine”came into effect, and was located outside state enterprises (sea ports) at the time this terminal was put into operation.
The Draft Law also provides for that the owners of water areas of separated sea terminals will have the right to get in use the appropriate part of the adjacent water area.
The amendments are published on the Verkhovna Rada official website http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=57477.
The necessity to consolidate special status of separated sea terminals legally is caused by the fact the current version of the Law of Ukraine “On Sea Ports of Ukraine” creates preconditions to infringe constitutionally established principles of inviolability of property rights and other proprietary interests on real estate and land when assigning boundaries of sea ports, as well as affects proprietary interests and protected property interests of water reserve land users, owners of hydrotechnical facilities and other facilities of sea transport.
In fact, the current version of the Law of Ukraine “On Sea Ports of Ukraine” provides for the forced transfer of land located outside sea ports, where separated sea terminals were constructed and operate, to the jurisdiction (administrative control) of other entity – the Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine SE.
Moreover, the forced subordination of investors owning separated sea terminals to the Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine SE contradicts the constitutionally established principles of the law supremacy, legal certainty and inviolability of legal rights obtained.
The presence of such discriminatory legal norms in the current version of the Law of Ukraine “On Sea Ports of Ukraine” causes the reduction in investment attractiveness of the port sector and increases the risk of infringement of private investors’ interests by state authorities and state enterprises.
We consider amendments initiated by the draftsmen to be reasonable.  They will eliminate all the drawbacks in the current version of the Law of Ukraine “On Sea Ports of Ukraine”, increase (improve) methods to protect property rights of investors owning separated sea terminals and protect them from administrative pressure of state bodies, ensure compliance with the legally established guarantees on inviolability of property rights, ownership of land and production facilities.
The adoption of the given Draft Law will enable the state to increase investment attractiveness of sea transport, to solve disputes among investors owning separated sea terminals and the Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine SA, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine as well as law-enforcement authorities.
Taking into account the above-mentioned factors, we think the amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Sea Ports of Ukraine” proposed in the Draft Law No. 3675 dated 18.12.2015 are to be supported and are extremely important for an efficient functioning of the Ukrainian agrarian sector.