Contractual regulation of public-private partnerships in Ukraine

The conceptual basis of contractual regulation is researched in the article. The research shows that increasing the efficiency of public-private partnerships (PPP) requires improving contractual relations, reducing their uncertainty. Accordingly, it is necessary to implement the approaches that will reduce the implicitness of agreements in the field of public-private partnerships. The perspective directions that could be realized through public-private partnerships in Ukraine are presented. Among them there is technically backward and outdated infrastructure (roads and railways, airports, seaports, housing and utilities, wastes removal and sorting, telecommunications).

The problems of public-private partnerships regulation in Ukraine are revealed. Thus, for example, regulation of functions in the field of PPP in Ukraine and European countries is assigned to different authorities. Regulatory functions in Europe are performed by specially created consulting centers, consisting of representatives of business and government. The similar regulatory functions in Ukraine are almost fully performed by different ministries and government departments. It is substantiated that the legal and regulatory framework of PPPs in Ukraine is very complicated, multilevel and bureaucratic. The law on public-private partnerships in Ukraine involves the implementation of projects only in the form of a treaty, while in some European countries there is no such limitation. In Europe there is usually created a special structure in the form of a legal entity with the participation of public and private partners, sometimes even involving financial institutions. The factors that hinder successful implementation of public-private partnerships projects are discovered in the article as well. 

It is suggested to improve contracting program implementation of public-private partnerships in Ukraine by enabling PPP project parties make the necessary changes during the project life cycle, thus providing more flexible regulation of relations between the parties. 
It is necessary to give local governments more powers to overcome difficulties when entering into partnership contracts with private capital at the regional level.