Not for sale

Ukraine extends its moratorium on the sale of agricultural land. What effect is this likely to have on the activities of international investors? On 28th December 2007, the Ukrainian Parliament approved the state budget for 2008, which extends the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land until the introduction of a land cadastre and land market laws. Thus, the moratorium, which was first introduced in 2001 as a temporary and short-term measure, is about to survive the fourth parliament and sixth government. President Yushchenko, Prime-Minister Tymoshenko, the ruling coalition in parliament and even the major opposition party – the ‘Party of the Regions’ – agree that all the steps necessary for lifting the moratorium, including the adoption of the above-mentioned laws, should be taken in 2008. However, experts, who have been hearing such declarations for years, wryly observe that there is nothing that lasts longer than temporary measures.A little bit of histo