Constitutional obligation of Ukraine to ensure freedom of entrepreneurial activity: urban planning reform

Abstract

The article analyzes the urban planning reform initiated by the Law of Ukraine of December 13, 2022 «On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Reforming the Sphere of Urban Planning» and its impact on the development of freedom of entrepreneurship in Ukraine. The author establishes that the State has objectified in this Law a number of progressive novelties which significantly reduce corruption risks in the sphere of urban development and create a solid basis for Ukraine to fulfill its constitutional obligation to ensure freedom of entrepreneurship, which is in line with the idea and purpose of European integration legislation.
 It is substantiated that legislative and practical ensuring of demonopolization and regulatory transparency in the sphere of urban development is an urgent duty of Ukraine, which should make the necessary efforts to attract huge investments in order to rebuild the industrial facilities, housing, infrastructure, destroyed during the war.
 It is stated that officials performing the functions of state architectural and construction control and supervision, in fact, even without the purpose of obtaining an undue benefit from the customer, are absolutely not interested in prompt and high-quality provision of their services, since their remuneration does not depend in any way on the quantity and quality of services provided by them. At the same time, the main opponents of this Law are city, town and village mayors, who cite a number of arguments, but the author of this article has systematically and consistently refuted these arguments of local government officials, as discussed in this publication. The application of these legislative innovations should destroy the monopoly on state architectural and construction control and remove the corruption component from this activity. The new law should ensure the implementation of the «three-part» test in social reality in order to eradicate corruption from the sphere of urban development. The «three-part» test consists of the following components: reasonable regulation of urban development activities based on the principles of legality and legal certainty; ensuring a free market competitive and transparent environment for entrepreneurship in the field of urban development; and the absence of personal contact between an «official» and an «entrepreneur» through the automation of services in this area.