New, Stable Procedure For Holding Auctions For Subsoil Use Permits Adopted

On 30 May 2011, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a new procedure governing the auction sales of special permits for subsoil use ("Procedure"), which is now not limited to the span of the 2011 calendar year, and will apply onwards. The decision to part with the tradition to annually revisit the contents of the auction procedure should hopefully eliminate the continuous delays in sales of special permits for subsoil use, caused each year by such ill practice.

The new auction procedure has gained more transparency, compared within that 2010, and in general has brought some positive changes, which are as follows:

• the Procedure now requires fewer state authorities to give consent before a subsoil area can be put for auction, and they must now either consent or reject that within a 30-day deadline;