Law Digest

E-appeal and e-petition

The Act of Ukraine On Introduction of Amendments to the Act of Ukraine On Appeals of Citizens by E-appeal and E-petition of 2 July 2015, No.577-VIII, introduces filing by citizens of individual and collective appeals in electronic format using the Internet and electronic means. It is envisaged that in such an appeal, apart from the surname, first name, patronymic, place of residence of a citizen and the substance of the matter, an e-mail address should be mentioned as well, to which the applicant may be sent a response, or other means of communication with him/her. The application of electronic digital signature forsending an e-appeal is not required.

The Act also introduces the possibility of appealing by citizens to the President, Verkhovna Rada, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and to local government agencies by filing e-petitions via official web-sites, respectively. The Act provides for requirements to the content of an e-petition — the substance of the matter should be set out. The responsibility for the content of an e-petition rests with its author (initiator).

Pursuant to the Act, an e-petition must collect the appropriate number of votes to its support. An e-petition addressed to the President, Parliament or Government must have at least 25,000 signatures of citizens collected within no more than 3 months after the day the petition was posted. Requirements to the number of signatures of citizens in support of an e-petition to a local government agency and the time period for collecting signatures are established by the charter of the territorial community.

Where an e-petition failed to collect the required number of votes in its support during the established period, it is considered as an appeal of citizens in accordance with the On Appeals of Citizens Act.

Production of electricity from alternative sources

The On Changes to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine regarding Ensuring Competition in Production of Electricity from Alternative Sources of Energy of 4 June 2015, No. 514-VIII introduces significant changes in the field of production of electricity from renewable sources.

The Act provides the following changes:

— Cancellation of a local component as a condition for receiving the “green” tariff. Instead, a special charge to the “green“ tariff is introduced for the use of Ukrainian equipment;

— Change of the “green” tariff for the new (after 1 July 2015) renewable electricity production facilities. In particular, the “green” tariffs for production of electricity from biomass and biogas are increased, and the “green” tariff for production of solar energy is decreased;

— Temporary (till 1 January 2017)  1.8 time decrease of the “green” tariff for the existing facilities of solar electric power, the capacity of which exceeds 10 МW;

— Adjustment of the “green” tariff quarterly (in contrast to the previous monthly adjustment) according to fluctuations of the UAH to EUR exchange rate at an average official exchange rate of the National Bank of Ukraine for the last 30 calendar days;

— Connection of renewable electricity production facilities to the network according to the general procedure and cancellation of connection rules at the expense of the system operator;

— Introduction of the “green” tariff for production of electricity from geothermal energy;

— Establishment of the “green” tariff for production of electricity from biogas and biomass derived from products of agriculture, forestry and fishery;

— The right of private households to the use of the “green” tariff  in case of production not only of solar, but also wind energy, the capacity of which does not exceed 30 kW;

— The right of renewable electricity production facilities to obtain the “green” tariff solely with respect to the net output of electricity, that is with respect to the difference between the produced electricity and the electricity consumed by the production facility. This rule will become effective after the regulator has approved a special procedure for electricity metering;

— Cancellation of requirements for obtaining the right to the use of the “green” tariff for electricity facilities with the capacity of over 5 МW depending on a participation in the Program of the Development of the Integrated Electric Power System of Ukraine for the next 10 years.