ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL CONSEQUENCES OF INSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN UKRAINE’S AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive administrative-legal analysis of the 2025 institutional reform in the sphere of public administration of agriculture in Ukraine, which introduced the consolidation of central executive bodies responsible for economic, agricultural and environmental policy and established the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine as a single integrated authority for the formulation and implementation of state policy in these domains. The study is based on the thesis that Ukraine’s agricultural governance is characterized by a phenomenon of chronic institutional turbulence caused by long-term reorganization processes conducted without conceptual continuity and without a coherent long-term strategy for rural development. It is substantiated that previous attempts to consolidate executive bodies failed to enhance the effectiveness of sectoral governance and created the preconditions for a critical reassessment of the new institutional model. The administrative-legal status and the scope of competences of the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine are analysed, with particular emphasis on the transformation of the distribution of powers in the fields of agricultural policy, food security, supervisory and control activities, international representation and European integration coordination. Special attention is paid to the transformation of the coordination model, namely the shift from inter-agency conciliation procedures to intra-ministerial coordination within the integrated ministry. The article identifies potential positive outcomes of the reform, including opportunities for integrated strategic planning, synchronization of economic, agricultural and environmental policies, optimization of administrative procedures and the introduction of project-oriented governance approaches. At the same time, a complex of risks is substantiated, associated with the possible loss of sectoral specialization, erosion of institutional memory, increased complexity of internal coordination, deficit of institutional trust and potential difficulties in the implementation of the European Union acquis communautaire. It is concluded that the 2025 institutional reform constitutes a large-scale administrative experiment with uncertain consequences, the effectiveness of which depends on normative clarification of the competences of the integrated ministry, formalization of internal coordination mechanisms, preservation of sectoral autonomy of the agricultural domain and the provision of effective forms of public participation in the formulation of state agricultural policy.