(In)consistency of the European-integration reform of Ukrainian legislation on state support of agriculture

The article examines the peculiarities of the reform of agricultural protection legislation in Ukraine in the context of European integration obligations. It was concluded that the European agricultural protection model, in addition to substantive and formal components, also has a mandatory technical and legal part, which is represented by important legal mechanisms: a) land registration systems (IACS and LPIS); b) accounting and analytical networks (FADN); c) institutional and functional structures (national payment agencies). European integration transformations in the domestic agro-protection sphere should concern all three components at once: substantive component (specific support mechanisms), formal component (compliance with legislation), technical-legal component (creation of an implementation environment for successful implementation of legislative requirements). In the course of our research, the imbalance of the European integration reform of domestic agricultural protection legislation was recorded. Such an imbalance is manifested in the active anticipatory development of the technical and legal component and in the passivity of rule-making in relation to the substantive and formal parts of the agro-protection model. The identified disproportionality can lead to future legislative problems and conflicts. Perhaps the lawmaker is postponing the reform (or at least its conceptual outline), hoping that he will have time to do it relatively quickly, relying on agricultural protection regulations and EU directives. However, this task is not so simple, because each EU member country must develop its own national version of legislation on state support for agriculture, focusing on its own needs, opportunities and priorities. Given the specific circumstances of Ukraine becoming a candidate for EU membership and the ultra-crisis modern conditions of preparation for accession, Ukraine is once again taking a crooked path of European integration reform of agricultural protection legislation, which may have negative consequences. In this regard, the classic sequence of the European integration reform of legislation on state support for agriculture of Ukraine “from abstract to concrete” seems optimal, namely: 1) conceptual stage (theoretical development of a new system of agricultural protection legislation, selection of legal mechanisms and their legislative form, outline future system of legislation); 2) the rule-making stage (creating the regulatory framework for the functioning of the new support system); 3) technical stage (creation, testing, launch of necessary information products for proper implementation of legal requirements).