Harmonization of legislation of Ukraine with legislation of EU in the sphere of land relations: stages, problems, prospects.

Kulinich P. Harmonization of legislation of Ukraine with legislation of EU in the sphere of land relations: stages, problems, prospects.

It is pointed out, that main form of harmonization of legislation of Ukraine with legislation of EU in the sphere of land relations consists in its adaptation, it means putting of Ukrainian land legislation in accordance with land legislation of EU countries. There are three stages of the adaptation. It is proved that first stage of adaptation of Ukrainian land legislation to land legislation of EU has started as land reform which was aimed at introduction of market mechanism into legal regulation of land relations in Ukraine. At this stage there was no one official document to serve as a program for adaptation of land legislation of Ukraine to Land legislation of EU. The leading role of the adaptation of land legislation have played international donors” technical assistance projects, first of all USAID and European Union projects. As a rule they have being selected separate very narrow sphere of land relations to assist Ukraine in market transformation of them. That is why the adaptation was not systematic enough during the first stage. The subject of adaptation was restricted to introduction into land legislation provisions about private ownership to land plots. However legal provisions regarding protection of land were not part of the adaptation.
The beginning of second state of the adaptation of land legislation of Ukraine is connected with adoption in 2004 of Law of Ukraine “On Common state program of adaptation of legislation of Ukraine to legislation of European Union”. At this stage the adaptation of land legislation of Ukraine to proper legislation of EU have conducted not directly, but through adaptation of adjacent branches of legislation, namely ecological and agrarian legislations, and was not very effective.
Next stage of the adaptation has coincided with preparation in 2015 Single complexed strategy and action plan for development of agriculture and rural territories in Ukraine for 2015-2020. This document can be regarded as a program for adaptation of wider range of land legislation of Ukraine to land legislation of EU. The Single strategy will promote to finishing adaptation of Ukrainian land legislation to European one on such key directions as legislation on formation of transparent land market, state registration of rights to land and its protection as well as transfer of majority of public land into communal ownership of local communities. However the Single strategy does not propose any actions on adaptation of Ukrainian land legislation to land legislation of EU in the sphere of protection of agricultural land from degradation which has increase dramatically with land market transformations in Ukraine.
It is stressed that harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with European one does not pursue the goal of unification of branch structure of Ukrainian legal system with branch structure of legal system of European countries. Presence in the legal system of Ukraine of a separate its branch of land law with Land Code in it creates more preconditions and possibilities for specialized and streamlined legal regulation of majority of land relations.
Keywords: land, building, construction, legal regime, synchronization