The European Business Association (EBA) supports exclusively the judicial procedure for canceling special permits for subsoil use, Olga Boiko, the coordinator of the EBA Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Development Committee, has said.

"At a meeting on March 19, 2021, the NSDC decided to cancel special permits for the use of subsurface resources of 19 companies operating in Ukraine. At the same time, in the presidential decree, which enacts the NSDC decision, there are no legal grounds for such a decision," Boiko said in a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

After analyzing the legal component of the issue, the EBA came to the conclusion that the issuance, refusal to issue, renewal and cancellation of permits for subsoil use, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, is carried out by a preliminary court decision.

"In the opinion of business, the authorities should in every possible way contribute to the creation of transparent and equal rules for doing business in the country and promote the rule of law. It is very important that foreign investors are confident in the stability of the Ukrainian legal field. This is necessary to prevent a decrease in the inflow of investments, which are so necessary for the recovery of Ukraine after negative economic events caused, among other things, by COVID-19," she said.

"The association understands the challenges that our country faces and, at the same time, hopes that all decisions will have legal grounds," the EBA expert summed up.