The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine continues the process it embarked on in February this year of transfer of agricultural land beyond the boundaries of settlements to the communal property of the amalgamated territorial communities, and counts on responsibility of local authorities and the effective use of the provided land resource.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman told during a meeting on the development of mountainous population centers which took place within the framework of a working visit to Ivano-Frankivsk region.

"Back in 2014, we launched the process of decentralization. And it is already tangible for the communities – they see the effect of the powers they got. But they must be completely sustainable in terms of land resources as well. The Government has found a mechanism of how to transfer land to consolidated communities, hence another 6 CTCs have received land in their property today. We are planning to wind up this process by the end of the year", the Head of Government stressed.

During the meeting, the documents on the transfer of land were signed by the leaders of the Zabolotivska CTC and Kosmatska CTC (Ivano-Frankivsk region); Nyzhankovitska CTC, Grabovetska CTC (Lviv region); Vyzhnytska CTC, Vashkivetska CTC (Chernivtsi region). According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the communities received over 2.4 thousand hectares of land.

"I would like to appeal to the heads of the amalgamated communities so that they manage the land and funds publicly. Local residents must be aware of how each hryvnia is spent", urged Volodymyr Groysman.

The Prime Minister also reminded that the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food and the Ministry of Justice should "gain momentum", quickly form and register the land plots and the rights to own those to complete the work by the end of the year.

Background

At present, 665 amalgamated territorial communities (CTC) have been established in Ukraine, which have already signed memorandum on transferring of land with regional structures of the State Service for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre (StateGeoCadastre).

In late January, the Prime Minister informed the Government had already found the best possible legal solution and was poised to kick off a process of transferring of land that is located outside the boundaries of a settlement into ownership of amalgamated territorial communities. The structures of the State GeoCadastre have already been deprived of the right to take unilateral decisions on the disposal of land plots outside the settlements without the consent of the amalgamated communities.

On February 27, land plots with a total area of 7,810.93 hectares were transferred into communal ownership of Gorodyshchenskaya CTC, Volyn region (926.48 hectares), Hirsivska CTC and Priazovske CTC, Zaporizhia region (798.48 hectares and 705.16 hectares respectively), Smirnovska CTC, Zaporizhia region (1,568.74 hectates), Pomichnyanska CTC, Kirovohrad region (70.57 hectares), Obolonska CTC , Poltava region (2,950.42 hectares ) and Natalynska CTC, Kharkiv region (791.08 hectares).

100% of the land located in the territory of the said amalgamated communities was formed and the data about it was submitted to the State Service for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre that allowed to transfer the land in the short term - within two weeks after receiving the relevant application by the line state authority. The procedure did not require any state budget spending.