Legal news in Ukraine: new minister of Community Development, number of deputies is planned to be reduced, Verkhovna Rada is considering bills on abolition of double payment of a single social contribution for lawyers and on circulation of land
Verkhovna Rada dismissed and appointed Minister of Community Development
On February 4, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine dismissed the Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine Alona Babak.
The minister wrote a statement of her own free will and stated that it was her personal decision.
She also clarified that «the system does not press on her».
Babak is a former deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Construction, Urban Planning and Housing and Communal Services.
On the same day, the deputies supported the candidacy of Denys Shmyhal for the post of Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksii Honcharuk explained the new appointment by the need to strengthen the Government's work to deepen the decentralization reform and continue the initiated movement.
Denys Shmyhal is a Ukrainian scientist, social and political figure, candidate of economic sciences.
In the 2000s he was engaged in business. He worked as the head of the Department of Economics, Investments, Industry and Trade of the Lviv Regional State Administration and the Deputy Regional Department of the Fiscal Service.
On August 2, 2019, Shmyhal held the post of chairman of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration.
The Verkhovna Rada previously approved in the first reading a bill to reduce the number of deputies
On February 4, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution «On the preliminary approval of the bill amending Articles 76 and 77 of the Constitution of Ukraine (regarding the reduction of the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the consolidation of the proportional electoral system)».
The bill provides that the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is three hundred people's deputies of Ukraine, who are elected for a term of five years.
A Ukrainian citizen can be a citizen of Ukraine who has reached the age of twenty-one on election day, has the right to vote, has been resident in Ukraine for at least the last five years and speaks the state language.
A citizen who has a criminal record for committing a deliberate crime cannot be a people's deputy of Ukraine if this criminal record is not paid off and not removed in the manner prescribed by law.
The term of office of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is five years.
In addition, it was established that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is elected by the proportional election system.
Regular elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are held on the last Sunday of October of the fifth year of the authority of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Extraordinary elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are called by the President of Ukraine and are held within sixty days from the date of publication of the decision on the early termination of powers of the Verkhovna Rada.
The current Verkhovna Rada continues to exercise its powers until the next election of people’s deputies of Ukraine.
We will add, Article 155 of the Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that the Bill on Amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, except Section I «General Principles», Section III «Elections. Referendum» and Section XIII «Amending the Constitution of Ukraine» should pass two readings. At first reading, the bill must be approved by a majority of the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine - that is, get 226 votes.
At the next regular session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, at least two-thirds of the constitutional composition of the parliament should vote for it - the document should get support of 300 deputies.
The bill approved eliminating the double payment of a single social contribution was approved as a basis
On February 4, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in its first reading bill No. 2166 «On the collection and accounting of a single contribution to compulsory state social insurance» (regarding the elimination of discrimination among payers)».
The bill cancels the obligations of individual proprietor (except for simplifiers), individuals engaged in independent professional activities, to pay the minimum of a single social contribution in the absence of activity, that is, for months in which no income (profit) was received.
The project also regulates the issues of accrual and payment of a single social contribution by persons engaged in dual activities – as individuals-entrepreneurs and persons pursuing independent professional activities. It is a matter of scientific, literary, artistic, educational or teaching, medical, legal practice, including advocacy and notarial activity.
Such persons are exempted from paying a single social contribution, provided that they are registered as individual entrepreneurs and that they carry out one type of the above-mentioned activities.
At the same time, the new law does not regulate which type of social contribution a lawyer will pay.
Deputies consider the bill on land circulation in the second reading
On February 6, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada began the second reading of draft Law No. 2178-10 «On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Turnover of Agricultural Land».
The bill abolishes the moratorium on agricultural land from October 2020.
Ukrainians and Ukrainian companies without foreign beneficiaries will be able to buy 10,000 hectares of land – only through bank transfer and only after confirming the legality of the origin of the funds.
The Chairman of the Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy Mykola Solskyi said that by the second reading the subjects of the legislative initiative submitted 4018 proposals and amendments, which are included in the comparative table. Now deputies have considered 216 amendments.
