The UBA Committee on Competition Law appealed to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development Dmytro Natalukha and the People's Deputy of Ukraine Oleksiy Movchan and expressed its support for the draft Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Improving the Efficiency of State Property Management, Improving the Procedures for Protecting Creditors' Rights, the Mechanism for the Sale of Seized Property and Approximation of Legal Standards in Ukraine to European Standards” (Reg. No. 11139 of 11.11.2024), which is currently being considered by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

The UBA Committee drew attention to the importance of this draft law for the development of the country's legal system, as it contributes to the improvement of state property management mechanisms and the creation of a more effective mechanism for protecting the rights of creditors. One of the main points of the draft law is the proposal to lift the moratorium on the forced sale of property for business companies if the state owns 50% or more of their authorized capital. The moratorium, which has been in place for more than 20 years, significantly complicates debt collection and enforcement of court decisions. The Committee members emphasize that the gradual lifting of the moratorium is an important step towards ensuring that Ukraine fulfills its obligations under the Council of Europe and European integration, as well as implementing the national strategy on the non-enforcement of court decisions by debtors, including state-owned enterprises.

However, the UBA Committee expressed some comments on the model of selling seized property through electronic auctions in the Prozorro.Sale system proposed in the draft law. It was pointed out that currently this system does not have all the necessary functions that are available in other platforms, for example, in the State Enterprise “SETAM”, and the implementation of such changes will take considerable time. However, despite these comments, the UBA supports the general direction of the draft law, as it will improve the regulation of state-owned enterprises, create equal conditions for competition and harmonize Ukrainian legislation with European standards.

For more details on the letter, please follow the link