On 1 July 2010 the Parliament of Ukraine has approved the Law of Ukraine "On Basic Principles of Relationships between the State and Private Partners" (the "Law"). The Law will enter into force after the signing thereof by the President and subsequent publishing.

The first draft of the Law was passed by the Parliament of Ukraine and annulled by a resolution of the Parliament of Ukraine on 9 October 2009.  It had been intended that the law would guide public-private partnership in Ukraine and, amongst other things, allow state guarantees to be granted to private partners. However, this draft did not regulate specifics of such partnership and contradicted some norms and provisions of the Land Code.

Soon afterwards, however, the initially registered and subsequently annulled draft of the Law was considerably amended, tabled and registered as a new draft with the Parliament of Ukraine (on 16 October 2009). 

The Law purports to regulate relations between the state and private partners.  It identifies the main principles of contractually based public-private partnership along with a more effective use of state and municipal property.  The Law also sets out mechanisms for attracting investments to contribute to the modernisation of industrial and social infrastructure of Ukraine.

The Law seems to be of a declarative nature and does not really regulate the issues connected with the relations between the public and private sectors. Thus, the Law provides for the main forms of implementation of the Public Private Partnership in Ukraine, among them are: the concession, the joint activity, the product sharing, i.e. the forms of agreements that are well regulated by another legislative acts. However, the Law provides for the possibility and establishes the procedure of the public procurement within the Public Private Partnership as well as the special regime of allocation and use of the land plots designated for PPP projects in Ukraine.

The Law also introduces the amendments to the Land Code of Ukraine, some effective laws and legislative act.

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The original publication date for this article was 05/07/2010.