The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc's faction in the Kyiv municipal council has said that the Kyiv municipal council has decided to privatize the buildings housing 13 embassies and the European Commission's Delegation to Ukraine, according to the press service of the bloc.
"The current authorities in the capital have placed communal buildings housing embassies and consulates of foreign countries on auction," the press service said.
According to the bloc, the council’s pro-Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi majority adopted the relevant decision on Sept. 17, 2009, by making the relevant amendments to the program for privatization of communal property in the 2007-2010 period.
BYT said that if these buildings are sold at auction, their new owners could decide to evict the tenants.
Thus, according to BYT, the embassies of France, Austria, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt, Algeria, and Poland, as well as the European Commission’s Delegation to Ukraine face the threat of eviction.
The bloc also said that it possessed a letter in which the Security Service of Ukraine’s division for Kyiv and the Kyiv region expressed concern that the possible eviction of the embassies could harm Ukraine’s image.
According to information from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, chancelleries, embassies, are located at the following addresses: 39, Reiterska Street (France); 33, Ivana Franko Street (Austria); 18, Arsenalna Street (Turkey); 58, Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street (the Czech Republic); 51/50 Artioma Street (Croatia, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan); 5, Bekhterevskoho Street (Cuba); 1, Hospitalna Street (Bulgaria); 8, Kotsiubynskoho Street (Romania); 19, Observatorna Street (Egypt); 64, Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street (Algeria); 60, Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street (Poland); 10, Kruhlouniversytetska Street (the European Commission’s Delegation to Ukraine).
Meanwhile, the Kyiv municipal council’s decision No. 41-1/2110 of September 17, 2009, a text of which Ukrainian News obtained, provides for privatization of 22 nonresidential premises and buildings owned by Kyiv.
Eleven out of the nonresidential buildings listed in the decision are located at the same addresses as embassies, but they are marked with the letter "A" and the building located at 51/50, Artioma Street, is marked with the letter "B."
The areas of the buildings listed in the council’s decision are not indicated, but they correspond to the relevant data from the bureau of technical inventorying.
According to BYT, the addresses of the buildings that are marked with the letters "A" and "B" in the council’s decision do not exist on the map of Kyiv.
According to the minutes of the Kyiv municipal council’s meeting of September 17, 2009, a text of which Ukrainian News obtained, deputies Petro Ivanov and Ihor Lavrov of the Leonid Chernovetskyi Bloc faction changed the draft decision on amendment of the program for privatization of communal property by verbally adding clauses on privatization of the buildings located at the 10 addresses during debate of the draft decision.
As earlier reported, the Kyiv municipal council cancelled a decision to privatize the buildings housing the Volodymyrskyi and Zhytnyi markets on March 2 as a result of protests by Kyiv residents and market workers.
