On October 30, the first GR meeting of the companies-members of the Association “Ukrainian Agribusiness Club” was held with Oleksandr Bakumenko, Deputy Head of VRU Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations.

During the open meeting, about 30 representatives of the companies got acquainted with the current activities of the Verkhovna Rada Committee and discussed relevant regulatory issues.

In particular, an important part of the committee work is the practices on the implementation of European integration norms in the agrarian sector.

The Agrarian Committee has adopted 5 EU integration bills: №0906 on governmental control carried out in order to verify compliance with the law on safety and quality of food and feeding stuff, animal health and welfare, № 2151 on amendments to the law on animal by-products, №1460_1 on amendments to certain legislation of Ukraine regarding approximation of the national legislation in seeds and planting spheres and № 1418 on amendments to certain legislative acts on animal identification and registration. The Committee adopted the bill № 5448 on basic principles and requirements for organic production, circulation, and labeling of organic products. The bill № 4126_1 on information for consumers regarding foodstuffs is in the process of development.

The purpose and tasks of the Agrarian Committee - to consolidate the legislative, executive branches, associations and representatives of the EU in order to adapt the necessary legislative norms to the maximum within a short period of time. Almost 70% of EU integration laws apply to the agrarian sector, including the issues of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, food industry. Currently, 4 bills are being submitted to Parliament. There are about 300 European regulations that need to be implemented and for this purpose, at least 4-5 integrated bills must be developed. According to the people's deputy, in order to accelerate this process, it is necessary to clearly define the algorithm of the road map of lawmaking work with understandable deadlines, intellectual resources and financing.

Among the topics that Oleksandr Bakumenko also voiced were the problems of raidership and land market. The bill on counteraction to raidership is ready and awaits its presentation in the Parliament. On Thursday, there will be a meeting of the working group, during which the final version of the bill will be approved. The position of the Committee on the opening of the land market was voiced at the parliamentary hearings on the land issues. According to Mr. Alexander, it is necessary to elaborate the concept of the law on the turnover of agricultural land, as this is a very politicized issue. In this case, the development of the concept requires several working days, and the main thing here is the political will. The law has to undergo public examination in order to remove the political preconception of issue and maximize its transfer to the expert area.

According to Alexander Bakumenko, UCAB represents serious business that invests in the country: “Today, the state is obliged to make such legislative framework that would stimulate the development of transparent business, which pays taxes, produces added value, creates new jobs and protects the investor who is at risk with his own money.”

 “We are very pleased that we have made the first step towards an open dialogue between government and business. In general, I want to thank for close and dynamic cooperation: UCAB participates in all working groups of the VRU Agricultural Committee, due to this it is possible to present the position and interests of our members. We plan to organize similar meetings for effective communication,” - comments Taras Vysotskyi, General Director of the Association “Ukrainian Agribusiness Club”.

The meeting has "question-and-answer" format, and representatives of companies were interested in the authorities’ views on the urgent and important issues that are affecting on their business and had shared their best practices. The companies also expressed their desire to join the working groups on various issues. For his part, Alexander Bakumenko proposed to meet on a quarterly basis: “Prepare the questions, I suggest to formalize our work, respect our understandings and move towards change.”