ВПЛИВ УГОДИ ПРО АСОЦІАЦІЮ З ЄС НА АНТИДИСКРИМІНАЦІЙНЕ ПРАВОВЕ РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ДЕРЖАВНИХ ЗАКУПІВЕЛЬ УКРАЇНИ

Анотація

Проаналізовано вплив ратифікації Угоди про асоціацію між Україною та ЄС на правове регулювання відносин у сфері державних закупівель в Україні з метою забезпечення принципу недискримінації. З’ясовано, що негайний ефект від Угоди в цій сфері матиме радше обмежений характер. Визначено, що на первісному етапі Угода здатна призвести за певних обставин навіть до деякого обмеження доступу європейський компаній до державних закупівель України.
На підставі критерію мети виокремлено та зазначено ті положення Угоди, які прямо стосуються предмета антидискримінаційного правового регулювання. Досліджено, що чимала кількість положень українського законодавства, спрямованих на усунення дискримінації у розглядуваній сфері, вже відповідає стандартам, закріпленим в Угоді.
З’ясовано, що найвірогіднішим напрямом заходів з імплементації Угоди буде виконання зобов’язання з реформування механізму оскарження результатів державних тендерів. Виявлено, що розробку методики об’єктивної формально-юридичної оцінки успішності виконання Україною цього зобов’язання можна вважати перспективним напрямом подальших досліджень.
Ключові слова: Угода про асоціацію, ЄС, Україна, економічна дискримінація, недискримінація, державні закупівлі, інфраструктурні проекти.

The article is devoted to the impact of ratification of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU on the regulation of relations in the field of public procurement in Ukraine with a particular aim to ensure the application of the non-discrimination principle to the relations in the field of public procurement. It turns out that the agreement will have a rather limited immediate effect; whereby potentially it may be used even to limit the access to Ukrainian public procurement of the EU-based companies. It has been proven specifically, that the immediate effect of the Agreement in this area might be rather limited although being low to moderate. Moreover,
under certain circumstances, some practices at the initial stage the Agreement’s application and implementation may lead to limiting access of European companies to the public procurement market in Ukraine.
On the basis of objective criteria the author distinguishes and allocates those provisions of the Agreement that are directly related to the subject of anti-discrimination regulations. Further, it is noted that a considerable number of provisions of the Ukrainian legislation aimed at eliminating discrimination in the proposed area do already meet the standards stipulated in the Agreement.
In other words, numerous provisions against discrimination in the area of public procurements seem to be already in line and very well in line with the EU standards laid down in and stipulated pursuant to the aforementioned Agreement.
The principles of public procurement, secured in the Agreement, are namely: nondiscrimination, equal treatment, transparency and proportionality. These principles are fleshed out in a number of provisions (in the terminology of the Agreement - standards) that are expedient for functional lines and can be divided into several groups: access to information on public procurement (first group), identification of the state contract (second group), challenging the results of public procurement (third group) (Articles 149, 150, 151 of the Agreement). All the above criteria are developed based on a deeply objective basis, allowing transformation of the institutional
framework of the conduct of the public procurement in Ukraine in effective, transparent and cost-effective manner. One should not overlook the fact that people of Ukraine are devoted to the integration with the EU, what allows Ukraine to revitalize and to become truly market economy
with skilled working force and well developed industrial facilities.
The progress of implementation efforts will most probably be focused on improving appellate procedures, the institutional reform, creating additional work forces, development of public infrastructure needed and organizing various public awareness raising campaigns with an aim
to comply with the obligations, arising for Ukraine from the relevant EU-Ukraine Association Agreement provisions. The most suggested direction of the implementation of the Agreement shall be the obligation to reform the mechanism of legal review of results of public tenders in the
way as to making it accessible to every citizen of Ukraine irrespective of the level of personal income or positioning within the society.
The EU-Ukraine association is a two-way street, fostering communication and information exchange in order to improve mutual understanding in the areas of public procurements as well as mobilizing communities and the whole society for necessary changes in attitudes and behavior
in order to comply with the EU standards. Collaboration among different stakeholders is one of the key factors for successful campaigning in the areas of public procurements, which has to be introduced in the way of the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
From the formal legal point of view it is not an easy task to give a reasonable answer to the question whether the existing appeal mechanism to the decisions in the area of public procurement - that is the provision creating additional values and opportunities for institutional stakeholders - is in line with the best international practices. In addition, existing stakeholders and international business entities already expressed their deepest dissatisfaction with the business practices, but often only in the press, and not, for example, by appeals to the authorities competent to give legal assessment of the actions of officials in charge of the appeals process.
Key words: Association Agreement, the EU, Ukraine, economic discrimination, nondiscrimination, public procurements, infrastructure projects.