Ukraine: Still No Farmland Sales

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament overrode a presidential veto on Tuesday to extend a moratorium on the sale of farmland, a decision that will keep some of Europe's best soil from going on the market for at least another year.


A Ukrainian farm
The parliament's governing coalition pulled together 367 votes to overturn the veto by President Viktor Yushchenko _ safely above the 300 needed _ and extend the ban until 2008.

Ukraine, once known as the bread basket of the Soviet Union, has allowed the private ownership of land for years, but the land code exempted farmland. The moratorium was due to expire at the end of last year, but parliament voted in December to extend it for another year to give lawmakers time to pass laws to better regulate the land market.

Yushchenko, however, vetoed the moratorium, arguing that it violates the constitutional rights of Ukrainians to do what they want with their property.

Farming associations warned that without proper regulations, rural residents would lose their land holdings to wealthy speculators. They feared that Ukraine would see a repeat of the privatization of industry that followed the Soviet breakup, when factories were snapped up at below market prices.

Ukraine has about 81 million acres of agricultural land, which experts say could be valued at around $60 billion.

"We are not against land sales, rather we want to see a civilized land market," said Ivan Kyrylenko, a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, which joined with the governing coalition to override Yushchenko's veto.

Yushchenko's chief-of-staff, Viktor Baloha, said in a statement that the president would sign not seek to veto the moratorium again. However, he called on lawmakers to create the necessary conditions to begin land sales within a year, Baloha said.

Source: AP