ON APRIL 27, 2021, AN EXPANDED MEETING OF THE LVIV REGIONAL JUSTICE REFORM COUNCIL (RJC) WAS HELD ON THE TOPIC “STATE REGISTRATION SPHERE: CURRENT CHALLENGES AND FURTHER DEVELOPMENT”.
THE LEGAL COMMUNITY OF THE REGION, TOGETHER WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CENTRAL OFFICE OF THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, THE OFFICE FOR COMBATING RAIDING, SPECIALISTS FROM THE WESTERN INTERREGIONAL DEPARTMENT OF THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, THE STATE ENTERPRISE “NAIS” AND EXPERTS FROM THE EU PROJECT “PRAVO-JUSTICE”, DISCUSSED ISSUES RELATED TO THE SECURITY OF REGISTERS AND COUNTERING RAIDING. The meeting was moderated by Marta Mochulska, coordinator of the Lviv RRRP.
Opening the meeting, Dovydas Vitkauskas, the Head of the EU Pravo-Justice Project, emphasized the relevance of the issue for Ukraine, especially on the eve of the law on opening the land market.
“The only sustainable way to resolve disputes over state registration is to return these powers to the courts. At the same time, we need to ensure better quality, security and reliability of data in the registers. This is the only way we will achieve our common goal of clearer and more predictable property rights,” said Dovydas Vitkauskas.
Olga Onishchuk, Deputy Minister of Justice for State Registration, emphasized the importance of holding professional discussions involving experts from the regions. “There will be challenges regardless of who considers complaints: the courts, the Ministry of Justice or another body designated by the state. Our task as a public authority that forms and implements the policy in the field of state registration, and our common task, is to make sure that there are no violations and no persons who want to profit from the victims.”, – emphasized Olga Onishchuk. Speaking about the problems faced by the Lviv region, Taras Gren, Head of the Western Interregional Department of the Ministry of Justicenoted: “We have to focus on the challenges that we are currently facing in terms of decentralization. […] There should be direct and strict coordination between local governments and state authorities to ensure the proper completion of this process.” In turn, Viktor Dubovyk, Head of the Office for Combating Raiding spoke about the novelties of the Ministry of Justice’s legislative initiatives, in particular, draft law No. 3774, which are currently being considered by the Verkhovna Rada and will speed up the consideration of complaints in the field of state registration.
“These changes will eliminate the remaining legislative loopholes that are currently being used to illegally seize real estate and attack businesses,” said Viktor Dubovyk. In particular, the draft law stipulates that in the event of encumbrances (restrictions), the Ministry of Justice may execute its own orders and thus return the property to the rightful owner in the event of the cancellation of illegal registration actions.
The document also provides for the elimination of formal obstacles to the consideration of complaints. Anastasia Kniazeva, National Expert of the EU Pravo-Justice Project, introduced the participants to the project “Electronic Office for Combating Raiding” that will operate on the basis of the Diia portal.
The pilot launch is scheduled for May 2021. “This service allows you to file a complaint electronically and track the entire path of its consideration in the Complainant’s Office without the need to send additional appeals and requests to the Office,” Anastasia Knyazeva emphasized. Vasyl Artymovych, Deputy Chairman of the Commercial Court of Lviv Region, member of the Lviv CCCI, analyzed the court practice of consideration of disputes in the field of state registration by commercial courts, providing statistics on the results of consideration of such cases in the Lviv region, and described the practice of consideration of cases in the field of state registration by the Supreme Court.
The participants also drew attention to the need to adopt the draft law No. 2110 “On Public Electronic Registers”, which has been under consideration by the Verkhovna Rada for more than a year and is intended to regulate the procedure for the creation and operation of electronic registers.
In conclusion, the participants emphasized the importance of such discussions and information exchange for the purposes of determining strategic and operational directions for further work in the field of state registration. For reference:The Regional Justice Reform Councils (RJRCs) were established with the support of the EU Pravo-Justice Project and operate in Chernivtsi, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa regions and Donbas. To date, members of the Councils have been actively involved in the preparation of a draft law on mediation, amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, proposals to improve legislation on enforcement proceedings, the introduction of an electronic court, and discussions on the concept of transitional justice. The RECs act as permanent working groups that promote the implementation of reforms in accordance with the bottom-up principle: by bringing region-specific challenges and their potential solutions to the level of central authorities.