657 out of the 665 AHs formed today in Ukraine and which, in accordance with the Governmental resolution, can get state land outside settlements into the communal ownership, began the corresponding procedure.

Within a week 99% of hromadas concluded memorandums of cooperation with the chief departments of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre in their oblasts while implementing measures for the transfer of state-owned agricultural land to the communal ownership. The rest of the AHs complete the preparation for signing.

In a memorandum, the parties, represented by the head of the Chief Department of the StateGeoCadastre and the village/rural settlement/town head, acting on behalf of amalgamated hromada, fix the mutual obligations and approaches to the process. Besides, the document contains the main stages of such a transfer and their sequence, detailed deadlines for the issuance of an inventory order, etc. The parties undertake to support each other at all stages.

“Quick reaction of AHs and intensity of the process of memorandums’ signing are the best evidence that land resources are considered by them as the main capability factor, and that the Governmental decision was not only long-awaited, but urgently needed,” said Maksym Martynyuk, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine. “Our task now is to make the process of land transfer as fast, transparent and comfortable for all parties as possible.”

It is noted that the memorandum is a declaration of intent, and the procedure for the transfer of land is officially launched after the AH Council adopts a decision on the appeal to the StateGeoCadastre regarding the transfer of land, and the Chief Department of the StateGeoCadastre in the oblast receives a corresponding request. On average, the land transfer process for one AH may take about two months.

Reference

On 31 January, the Government approved a resolution on the transfer of state-owned agricultural land plots to the communal ownership of amalgamated hromadas, allowing to carry out land decentralisation without introduction of legislative changes.

There are 665 AHs established in Ukraine with about 759 thousand hectares of state-owned agricultural land that can be transferred to the communal ownership.

The StateGeoCadastre started the process of land transfer from 1 February 2018. A special portal (otg.land.gov.ua) was created to feature the state of transfer of land to AHs, and the hot line (0 800 502 528) was introduced to provide consultations of the State Land Cadastre Centre experts on this issue.