The case upon the constitutional petition of 47 People's Deputies of Ukraine considered by the Court
On September 24, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, at the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings, considered the case upon the constitutional petition of 47 People’s Deputies of Ukraine on compliance of specific provisions of the Commercial Code of Ukraine, laws of Ukraine "On the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine", "On Pipeline Transport", "On the Management of State Property".
The subject of the right to constitutional petition applied to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine with a request to recognise as unconstitutional the provisions of paragraphs two and three of Article 89.3, Article 136.5 of the Commercial Code of Ukraine, paragraph two of Article 21.6, paragraph one of Article 44.3, Article 44.4 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine" of February 27, 2014 No. 794-VII as amended, Article 14 of the Law of Ukraine "On Pipeline Transport" of May 15, 1996 No. 192/96-VR as amended, paragraph twelve of Article 4.1 of the Law of Ukraine "On Management of State Property" of September 21, 2006 No. 185-V as amended.
The People's Deputies of Ukraine claim that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has been removed from:
- the process of planning the activities of the gas transmission system operator, the transmission system operator and the company that has corporate rights in the gas transmission system operator;
- control over the formation and use of these resources by financial entities;
- making decisions on the use by business entities of objects of state property transferred by them for the purpose of creating an operator of the transmission system or an operator of the gas transmission system, their operation, maintenance, planning, development and financing;
- determination of the organisational structure of enterprises, institutions and organisations of pipeline transport;
- direct management of state-owned objects used in the process of natural gas transportation and/or storage activities;
- management and allocation of capacity and investment planning for economic entities engaged in the transmission of electricity or transportation of natural gas;
- coordination and control in general in relation to the relevant entities.
According to the petitioners, the abovementioned legislative regulation removes the Government of Ukraine from exercising the powers vested in it by the Constitution, which unbalances the system of exercising state power.
In order to prepare the case materials for consideration, appeals were sent to the President of Ukraine, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, as well as to the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine and the State Property Fund of Ukraine.
In addition, to outline scientific approaches, inquiries were sent to Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, National University "Odesa Law Academy", Volodymyr Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, as well as members of the Research Advisory Council of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
After hearing the information presented by the Judge-Rapporteur Oleksandr Lytvynov, the Court completed consideration of the case at the public part of the plenary session and proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session for a decision.
The Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Tupytskyi chaired the plenary session.
Serhiy Vlasenko, a representative of the subject of the right to constitutional petition, was present at the plenary session of the Court’s Grand Chamber.
The public part of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the link: http://ccu.gov.ua/kategoriya/2020.
