Subsoil use legislation in Ukraine has undergone significant changes in the last two years.
On December 27, 2019 the President of Ukraine signed the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Improvement of the Legislation on Extraction of Amber and Other Minerals” No 402 IX, which introduced significant changes to the Subsoil Code, the Land Code and other legislative acts. Among the many innovations, it is worth highlighting the following:
- Cancelation of the requirement for environmental impact assessment before conclusion of production-sharing agreement (to be conducted after production-sharing agreement will be concluded);
- Introduction of electronic bidding for auctions on the sale of special permits for subsoil use (all auctions for issuing special permits shall be held only through the public online platform ProZorro);
- Simplification of subsoil use permits issuance.
The next step was the adoption by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on February 19, 2020, the amendements to the Procedure for Issuance of Special Permits for Subsoil Use (Resolution No. 124).
"Our goal is to create more transparent conditions and reduce the administrative burden on investors, so now we exclude coordination with regional councils for subsoil of national importance from the procedure for obtaining special permits, as it was before. This created additional corruption risks and blocked subsoil development. But it is important to comply with environmental legislation, so investors are prohibited from starting activities at sites before obtaining a conclusion on the Environmental Impact Assessment, "said the Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine Oleksiy Orzhel, commenting on the document.
Among the many changes, it is worth highlighting the following:
- the need to agree with the regional, Kyiv and Sevastopol city councils, the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on the provision of subsoil use for minerals of national importance and for purposes not related to the extraction of minerals is excluded;
- the list of subsoil use for which a special permit can be obtained has been expanded, namely: geological study of amber subsoil, including experimental and industrial development of deposits with subsequent amber mining (industrial development of deposits);
- approved the procedure for providing subsoil for use in subsoil areas in the area of the anti-terrorist operation and / or the implementation of measures to ensure national security and defense, carried out through the Joint Forces Operation;
- it is possible to submit an application and documents for obtaining a permit without conducting an auction in electronic form through the Electronic Cabinet of the subsoil user, which will provide an opportunity to register applications for administrative services.
IAs of today, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine has announced the following auctions for 2020:
- Auction for July 6, 2020 (8 objects);
- Auction for July 17, 2020 (11 objects);
- Auction for August 31, 2020 (1 object).
|
NAZALI TAX & LEGAL |