Legislative news digest: LEGAL HOTLINE 24.10.2019

Bankruptcy Code of Ukraine Comes Into Force

On 21 October 2019, Code of Ukraine on Bankruptcy Procedures was brought into force.

The major change is the bankruptcy procedure and restoration of an individual’s solvency. Only a debtor will be able to initiate the bankruptcy procedure. Furthermore, liquidation estate will not include a debtor’s only dwelling (an apartment with the floor area up to 60 square meters or a house with the floor area up to 120 square meters), as well as monetary assets in the debtor’s accounts with pension and social insurance funds.

Upon introducing the Code, the Law of Ukraine “On Restoring Debtor’s Solvency or Declaring a Debtor Bankrupt” ceased to be in force.

Law on Corruption Whistleblowers Adopted

The amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Corruption Prevention” are aimed to encourage citizens to report about known cases of corruption. For that purpose, a corruption whistleblower shall mean an individual who, believing the information to be true and correct, reported about the potential facts of corruption or corruption-related offences, other violations of the law made by another person.

The whistleblower will also be entitled to a remuneration if he or she reports a corruption offence where monetary value or damage to the State is at least 5,000 times greater than the subsistence minimum for employable persons at the time of the offence (currently UAH 10,035,000). The amount of remuneration for the whistleblower will be calculated by the court and will range within 10 % of the monetary value of the subject matter of the corruption offence or the amount of damage caused to the State due to the offence. The remuneration will not exceed 3,000 minimum wages effective at the time of the offence (currently up to UAH 12,519,000).

Unified State Construction E-System To Be Set Up In Ukraine

On 17 October 2019, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts To Improve the Procedure of Rendering Administrative Services in the Construction Sector and Introduce a Unified State Electronic System in the Construction Sector”.

The Law envisages the following: introduction of unified system within the urban planning cadastre, applications using e-form to receive any administrative and other services in the field of construction, reducing the list of construction documentation, obtaining the results of administrative services in soft copy, introducing a single point of contact, payment for administrative services in the field of construction as well as fines for urban planning violations via e-system, introduction of identifiers for construction facilities, inclusion of reference copies of building regulations to the e-system.

National Anti-Corruption Agency Reboot

On 18 October 2019, the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine to Ensure Effective Institutional Anti-Corruption Mechanism” took effect.

The law envisages reorganisation of the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption and transition form collective to one-man ruling. From now on, the head of the National Agency will be appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine based on applications submitted by the interview panel following the results of a public recruitment procedure.

ECHR: Dismissal of Civil Servants under The Law of Ukraine “On Purification of Power (Lustration)” Led to Violation of Their Rights

On 17 October 2019, the European Court of Human Rights rendered a decision on the case Poliakh and Others v. Ukraine. The case involved five civil servants who served at least one year between 2010 and 2014 or held ranks in the Communist Party of the former Ukrainian SSR before 1991, and were dismissed under the 2014 Lustration Law.

On the case, ECHR unanimously resolved the following: violation of § 1 of Article 6 (right to a fair trial) of the European Convention on Human Rights due to protraction of the claimants’ domestically considered cases to reinstate them and violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the Convention.

Moreover, the Court stated that the Law of Ukraine On Purification of Power applies to a very wide range of persons and ignores individual contributions of the claimants, as well as whether they were personally involved in any non-democratic activities carried out during the former president’s rule.