Oleksiy Feliv noted positive changes in the energy sector at the Industrial Legal Forum

On October 4, the Industrial Legal Forum, organized by the legal publisher “Juridical Practice”, took a place at Premier Palace Hotel in Kyiv.

The economic, political and legal challenges in Ukrainian industry, the impact of the banking crisis, the competitiveness of Ukrainian producers in world markets – these and other issues were analyzed in the framework of the panel discussion “Structural Transformations of Ukrainian Industry”.

Oleksiy Feliv, Managing Partner and Head of EU Desk at INTEGRITES, analyzed the degree of implementation of a number of laws in the industrial sector and the effect they had on the development of various industries.

Summing up the interim results on the implementation of the reforms envisaged by the Coalition Agreement, in Oleksiy’s opinion, only the energy sector has made positive progress. In particular, the Law of Ukraine “On the natural gas market”, which provides diversification of suppliers and disclosure of the market as a whole, has been successfully adopted and implemented. Another reform law is the Law “On the Electricity Market”, which should be implemented in the near future. Finally, the Law on the continuation of the conclusion of energy service contracts for the thermomodernization of the budget institutions buildings (Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Introduction of New Investment Opportunities, Ensuring the Rights and Legal Interests of Business Entities for Large-Scale Energy-Modernization”) determined the legislative framework for ESCOs contracts and energy-efficient projects in municipal and public sector.

One of the structural changes for industry, according to Oleksiy, is waiving of obsolete standards and moving to voluntary declaration. In Ukraine, there is a kind of ambiguous situation: the Law of Ukraine “On Standardization” defines the standards that have been in operation since the 90s as non-mandatory whereas the newer ones exist. Given the level of modern production, this approach is positive, but quite often there is no any new standards. However, for many Ukrainian enterprises to receive the European certification is costly. To avoid major expenses, Oleksiy Feliv advised entrepreneurs to pay attention to the EU programs providing assistance in the preparation of the latest technical regulations and the introduction of procedures for obtaining certificates of compliance with European standards.