Who helped developers write off billion-dollar debts to communities through the “fish law”? MPs named

Communities will miss 3-4 billion UAH that were to be directed toward roads, schools, kindergartens, and shelters. The reason is amendments to the Law on Stimulating Economic Development of the Fisheries Economy (No. 5018-IX), which the president signed at the end of October. This is reported by the public initiative “Hoe,” with the information partner being “Hlaskom.”

As noted by the initiative, before the second reading amendments were introduced to the bill that provide for writedown of developers’ debts to communities from their share participation, even if they had already won courts. These provisions have nothing to do with the fisheries economy.

The amendments were submitted by MPs Hryhoriy Mamka (Platform for Life and Peace) and Andriy Motovilovets (Servant of the People). They were supported by the Agricultural Committee chaired by Oleksandr Haïdu (Servant of the People).

During the voting in the session hall, Roman Lozynskyi (Voice) put Mamka’s amendment No. 1030 up for confirmation, but it did not gather the necessary votes. At the same time, Motovilovets’ amendment No. 1223, which the committee edited, was not put up for confirmation and remained in the law.

According to analyst Heorhiy Mohylnoho, some deputies may have voted believing these provisions had already been removed. He notes that the law was adopted precisely when communities learned to collect such debts through courts, and the Supreme Court had formed a positive legal practice.

“Yes, the Bucha Regional Prosecutor’s Office recovered more than 4 million UAH of share participation from a housing development for Irpin. Still in 2021 the Supreme Court, the Grand Chamber ruled that a developer must return these funds to the community, even if no contract was signed. 2 October 2026 year the Supreme Court determined how to calculate such debts, and already within 11 days the Rada adopted the ‘fisheries law,’ which halts these obligations,” the analyst emphasized.

According to Mohylny, such amendments violate the Constitution and Article 116 of the Rules, which require that amendments correspond to the subject of the bill. The Verkhovna Rada’s Main Legal Department drew attention to the noncompliance with the Rules, and the Speaker of the Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, was supposed to oversee adherence to the Rules in the chamber.

“Under the pretext of a lack of funds in local budgets, the parliament returned a corrupt scheme in which master plans are developed at developers’ expense. State and communal structures can now take land for development without detailed plans, which opens the way to chaotic development and joint projects with private developers. Not a single safeguard – neither the relevant committee nor the Speaker of the Rada – worked. So we included this law in the ‘Reload the country, you can do it’ toolkit as harmful, and voters will know who of the MPs voted for it and how. Parliament should urgently repeal these provisions by a separate law,” Mohylny added.

Recall that the Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law No. 12384 in the second reading on 13 October 2026 year. It was supported by 275 members of parliament.

At the end of October, Volodymyr Zelensky signed the Law on Stimulating the Economic Development of the Fisheries Industry (No. 5018-IX). Ecologists called it the “fisheries law.” In experts’ view, the document, supported by MPs in the first reading, could worsen drinking water quality and limit access to coasts. However, before the second reading some risks were removed, and others were added. Now the “fisheries law” delights developers: the document… writes off their debts to communities over share participation.