The Association appealed to the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs

Article 12 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides a classification of criminal offences (misdemeanours and crimes) with a clear differentiation of punishment in the form of a fine or imprisonment depending on the act committed.

At the same time, Article 240 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• in case of illegal extraction of mineral resources of local importance, there is a differentiated approach to the qualification of this offence in view of its consequences, i.e. liability is determined depending on the amount of damage – in a significant amount, when the cost of illegal extraction of mineral resources is thirty or more times higher than the tax-free minimum income of citizens, or in a large amount, when the cost of illegal extraction of mineral resources is one hundred or more times higher than the tax-free minimum income of citizens;
• in the case of illegal extraction of minerals of national importance, there is no such differentiated approach to the qualification of the offence in view of its consequences, i.e. formally, the illegal extraction of minerals of national importance of any value, even of the lowest value, falls under the elements of the offence.

According to paragraph 11 of Article 16 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’, in the course of exercising their legislative function, committees are obliged to ‘study public opinion, consider appeals from citizens, citizens’ associations, the results of the all-Ukrainian referendum, any proposals that indicate the need to adopt new legislative acts or amend legislative acts, and, if necessary, prepare relevant draft acts and submit them to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’.

Under Article 41 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’, committees plan their work for each regular session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and the committee’s work plans are approved by the committee’s decision before the start of the regular session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for which the plan is formed. Therefore, the Association, taking into account the inconsistency of certain provisions of Articles 12 and 240 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine regarding a differentiated approach to punishment depending on the consequences of the offence, appealed to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement with a request to include the issue of introducing an amendment to Article 240 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for a differentiated approach to the qualification of an offence, taking into account its consequences in the illegal extraction of minerals of national importance, as provided for in the Note to this Article on local minerals, in addition to the Committee’s action plan for the current session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine or the Committee’s action plan for the next session of the Parliament of Ukraine.

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