The web site of the Supreme Council of Ukraine published “Remarks of the Chief legal department of the Supreme Council of Ukraine” regarding the draft law on extraction and realization of amber #1351-1. According to these remarks, the law has many drawbacks and will not contribute to solution of the problem of illegal extraction and realization of amber.
On 7 October 2015, the Committee on Environmental Policy, Nature Use and Liquidation of consequences of Chornobyl disaster of the Supreme Council of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Committee) reviewed and recommended for adoption in the second reading and as a whole the draft law #1351-1 on extraction and realization of amber. The review of the draft law was performed with violation of the procedures, there was no discussion of all amendments suggested by people’s deputies. The adopted decision support the version of the draft law “that was reviewed at the meeting of the Committee”. As a result of such non-transparent procedure, the last version of the draft law did not take into consideration important proposals from the public.
Unlike the Committee, experts of the Chief legal department of the Supreme Council of Ukraine stated the following:
- The draft law is not acceptable because of inconsistency with the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine and the Civil , Land and Water Codes of Ukraine , Laws of Ukraine “On the Fundamentals of State Supervision (Control ) of economic activity”, ” On Commodity Exchange” and other laws , and also because of internal contradictions of the draft law, conflicts with the laws , non-systemic nature of amendments.
- Defined by the draft law regulation features for some relations regarding use of amber-bearing subsoil and sale of extracted amber will lead to violation of the principle of consistency in regulation of mining relations.
- The approach proposed by authors of the draft will lead to misbalance in the sphere of regulation of relations connected with the use of subsoil for amber extraction, its storage and sale and in practice will lead to uneven use of the law to various economic entities and thus to violation of their rights.
- The draft law introduces a more complicated mechanism of regulation of mining relations compared to existing procedures, which contains no mechanisms that would stimulate and encourage economic development in the field of geological exploration, amber extraction and competitive relationship in this area and ensure guaranteed mandatory reclamation of lands damaged due to amber mining, compliance with the conditions of removal, storage and use of fertile topsoil, protection of cultural and archaeological heritage, compliance with safety and health conditions for the work of miners.
Lawyers of the Supreme Council supported the position of the public that:
- In view of the proposed provisions, the draft law will create possibilities for monopoly position of the state economic entities engaged into amber extraction and legalization of its illegal extraction.
- Despite requirements of Art. 116 of the regulation of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, the draft law was amended to include provisions that were not considered by the Supreme Council of Ukraine in the first reading.
The full text of the remarks can be found at the following link:
http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=53194
We would like to state again that for many times EPL emphasized that the issue of illegal amber extraction can be solved within the current legislation and to this end important are actions of executive authorities rather than adoption of a draft law with questionable reputation.
For more detail please view: http://epl.org.ua/events/1765-pravovi-aspekty-vydobutku-burshtynu-v-ukraini
We hope that after such a conclusion of the Chief legal department adequate deputies will not vote for it even if authors of the law review it in the second reading.
EPL calls for authors of the draft law to withdraw the draft law from the list of laws for voting and for all people’s deputies to increase control over the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine, Security Service of Ukraine, the State Agency for Geology and minerals and other executive authorities that fail to perform their obligations and in fact promote illegal amber extraction.
For further information please contact :
Sophia Shutiak, law of the 1st category
Email: office@epl.org.ua; sofiya.shutiak@gmail.com,
tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
Petro Testov, EPL environmentalist
Email: office@epl.org.ua; petro.testov@gmail.com
tel.: (032) 225 – 76 -82
