Agrarian committee recommends VR to approve law on land market

The relevant decision was taken at today’s meeting of the committee following the consideration of amendments to the draft law, the press service of the Verkhovna Rada reported.

It is noted that MPs have considered over 3,000 amendments to the bill.

"19 members of the Committee voted in favor of the decision, one voted against, and three abstained," the statement reads.

According to the head of the committee, Mykola Solsky, the bill includes the following basic amendments:

- only citizens of Ukraine, the state, territorial communities and Ukrainian companies founded by Ukrainians have the right to buy land;

- the right of foreign nationals as founders of companies to buy Ukrainian land can be decided by a referendum;

- the ownership of not more than 10 thousand hectares;

- banks can also become landowners in case of defaults on mortgage loans, but such land plots must be sold at auctions within two years;

-  the price of land cannot be lower than the estimated monetary value.

As Ukrinform reported, on November 13, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada approved the bill on the land market (No. 2178-10) at first reading. In particular, the draft law provides for the lifting of the land sale ban from October 1, 2020. According to the document, persons who can acquire ownership of agricultural land are expected to be citizens of Ukraine, territorial communities, the state, legal entities of Ukraine, foreign nationals and stateless persons in the event of inheritance and the obligation to sell the land within one year.

On December 17-18, Ukrainian farmers conducted rallies against the land reform initiated by the government.

President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested holding a referendum on the sale of Ukrainian agricultural land to foreigners.

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