Rada may cancel notarization of statutes of religious organizations

On June 23, a group of deputies submitted to the Parliament bill № 6642, cancelling the notarization of the statutes of religious organizations, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom.

"The authenticity of signatures on the constituent document of a public association, a religious organization or a charitable organization is notarized only if there is such a requirement in the constituent documents of the relevant public association, religious organization or charitable organization," the draft law says.

The same addition applies to the minutes of the general assembly of a religious organization that approves amendments to the statute, as well as a deed of transfer (in case of merger, accession, transformation) and the distribution balance (in case of division or separation) of a religious organization as a legal entity.

The authors of the initiative propose to abolish the innovations of the law, known as anti-raid, adopted in October 2016. Regarding religious organizations, it complicated their two-stage registration procedure with one more intermediate step – notarization of documents already registered by the authorities.

In addition, bill № 6642 provides that no administrative fee, which today is ₴ 460, will not be collected for the state registration of changes in information about religious organizations in the Unified State Register. Religious organizations are equated in the payment of administrative fees to commercial enterprises.

The term for re-registration of religious organizations ends on January 1, 2018, and of public associations, charitable organizations and other non-profit organizations – on July 1, 2017.