Legislative changes are being initiated in Klitschko to preserve cultural heritage: fines from 850,000

Kyiv city authorities propose to increase fines for improper maintenance of cultural monuments and establish a criminal responsibility for crimes against cultural heritage. The corresponding proposals were submitted to the head of the parliamentary TSK on Kyiv issues.

“A significant number of cultural heritage sites in Kyiv, as well as in Ukraine in general, are in a neglected state due to unscrupulous owners. Violations of legislation in the field of cultural heritage protection are found at almost every third monument. But today the city does not have effective mechanisms of influence on the owners of such objects due to imperfect legislation. In order to change the situation, five years ago, Kyiv proposed to make changes to the relevant legislation, but we were not heard… Maybe this time, at the level of the TSK, it will be possible to move this issue. So, yesterday I handed over our draft laws to the head of the TSC,” Hanna Starostenko said.

The KMDA, in particular, proposes to increase fines for improper maintenance by owners of cultural heritage objects, setting them at the level from UAH 850,000 to UAH 1.7 million. It is also proposed at the legislative level to provide for the possibility of the city's forced purchase of monuments into communal property, if the owners contribute to their destruction by their actions. And for crimes against cultural heritage, criminal responsibility should be provided, the KMDA is sure.

Also, in the conditions of war, the Convention of the Council of Europe on Offenses Related to Cultural Values, which Ukraine signed in 2017, needs immediate ratification. Deputy Vitalia Klychka noted.

“The temporary commission in the Council, which was created for the purpose of political pressure on local self-government, could actually help and do something useful at least once. For example, to solve a number of issues related to the preservation of cultural heritage, which have not been solved for years due to the ignorance of the people's representatives. It is this, and not pushing on the sidelines, that should be the basis of the work of people's deputies within the framework of the TSK. Instead of waving their hands, people's elected representatives from the ruling party could leave at least one positive memory of themselves – to fulfill their direct duties and protect the capital's cultural heritage: to do what depends on them,” Starostenko stressed.