A brief history of activity Public union Ukrainian Publishers & Booksellers Association. 

The Ukrainian Publishers & Booksellers Association (UPBA) was registered by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on June 17, 1994, as the Ukrainian Association of Non-State Publishing Houses.

Nine private publishing houses acted as founders. The first president of the Association was elected general director of the humanitarian literature publishing house Abris, doctor of philosophy Yuri Prylyuk.

After his death in March 1996, a new director of the Abris publishing house, Oleksandr Afonin, was elected to this position, he has been the head of the Association since that time and to this day.

In September 1996, the Ukrainian Association of Non-State Publishing Houses was re-registered as the Ukrainian Association of Publishers Charitable Organization, and in 2000 it once again changed its name to the Charitable Organization (CO) Ukrainian Publishers & Booksellers Association.

In September 2016, after the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the new Law of Ukraine On Public Associations, CO UPBA was re-registered as the Public Union Ukrainian Publishers & Booksellers Association, which is a continuation of PU UPBA.

The main goal and idea of ​​the foundation of the Association are to create favorable conditions for the subjects of the publishing business of Ukraine for practical activities to provide the population with a domestic spiritual and material product - a book, to increase its role as a fundamental component of the state and nation-building processes, the primary tool for the formation of self-awareness of the Ukrainian people.

From the first day of its activity, the Association focused on the work of creating a legislative and regulatory field that would meet the civilized standards of European countries in matters of legal support of the book publishing business. In particular, it concerns the establishment of special taxation norms for publishing entities for all operations related to the publishing preparation, production, and distribution of a domestic book.

Given the fact that at the time of the Association's creation, the book as a work of art, unlike the practice of European countries, was not separated from the general scheme of taxation of any industrially produced goods and bore the entire burden of taxes that existed at that time in Ukraine, the main goal was to change the tax legislation in part related to the book.

Law-making and rule-making activities of the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Distributors for the entire period of its existence since 1994.

— Initiation of negotiations with the International ISBN Agency regarding the assignment of its identification number to Ukraine as an independent state and the signing of an agreement between the Agency and the UPBA on its assignment (1996);

— The holding in Ukraine of the international conference "Legislation in the world of books: the implementation in Ukraine of the recommendations of the Warsaw Conference of 1996" with the participation of representatives of the European Union, the International ISBN Agency, and UNESCO (1997);

— Initiating and participating in the preparation of the Law of Ukraine "On Publishing Matters";

— Initiating and participating in the preparation of the Law of Ukraine "On Value Added Tax", which exempted book publishing entities from paying this tax (1997);

— Initiating and participating in the preparation of decrees of the President of Ukraine in 1998, 2000, 2006, and 2013, which relate to issues of support and development of domestic book publishing;

— Initiation and authorship of clause 7.13.7 of the Law of Ukraine "On Corporate Income Taxation", which exempted book publishing entities from paying income tax for one and a half years;

— The initiation and direct preparation of the full-scale Law of Ukraine "On State Support of Book Publishing in Ukraine" (March 2003), by which book market participants were exempted from paying value-added tax and income tax until 2009 from July 1, 2004. In September 2008, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine extended the validity of this law until January 1, 2015.
In the period from 2004 to 2015, the UBPA stopped six attempts by various government bodies to eliminate the regime of preferential taxation of book publishing entities:

— 2006 development of the Map of problems of book publishing and library affairs in Ukraine. The text of this document became the basis of the project Measures to promote the development of domestic book publishing and book distribution;

— Initiation of the development and signing in June 2008 of the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine regarding the establishment of a preferential 4% rental rate for bookstores in state and communally owned premises, provided that at least 50% of publications in the Ukrainian language are available in their assortment;

— Initiation and co-authorship of the preparation of the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine "On the introduction of a moratorium on the eviction of editorial offices of printed mass media, cultural institutions, including libraries, publishing houses, bookstores, book distribution enterprises" (2009);

— Initiating and participating in the development of the Law of Ukraine "On strengthening the protection of property of mass media editorial offices, publishing houses, bookstores, book distribution enterprises, and creative unions."
UPBA was the direct developer of a whole series of program documents, such as document packages of the final measures of two parliamentary hearings on the issues of increasing the role of the domestic book in the formation of modern social and economic relations in society and creating conditions for the dynamic development of national book publishing.

With the participation of the UPBA, national book events were organized: the Lviv Publishers' Forum, the Kharkiv "World of Books" festival, the "Book World" International Book Exhibition in Kyiv, and the "Days of Ukrainian Books in Odesa" forum. Facilitating book-exhibition events has always been and remains one of the priority areas of activity of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Association itself is a permanent participant in international book fairs in London, Paris, Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main, Warsaw, Abu Dabi, Montreal, etc.

Throughout all the years of its existence, the UPBA has been analyzing the state of the book market in Ukraine.

UPBA is one of the few Ukrainian public organizations that exist solely at the expense of membership fees of its members.

The association actively cooperates with higher education institutions of Ukraine that train specialists in the publishing industry, in particular, Lviv Academy of Printing, Polygraphic Institute of the National Technical University "KPI", Kyiv University of Culture and Arts, National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", Borys Grinchenko University.

With the active participation of the Association, the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine Regarding the Improvement of the State Management System in the Book Publishing Sector" was adopted and approved, according to which a new state institution was created - the Ukrainian Book Institute (2017), and most of the statutory documents were prepared. necessary for the legal registration of this institution.

During 2014-2017, the Association acted as a developer and initiator of the implementation of the system of open and transparent textbook competition for secondary schools, which provided the opportunity to select textbooks produced by state order to the direct consumers of this book product - teachers.

In general, during the entire period of its activity, the representatives of the Association acted as initiators, developers, and co-developers of dozens of draft laws, government resolutions and orders, departmental orders that provide support for multi-genre domestic book publishing, regulate industrial relations between subjects of the publishing business and normalize relations between enterprises of the publishing industry and bodies authorities of different levels.
During 2020-2021, the Association took a direct part in the development of the Reading Development Strategy for 2021-2025: "Reading as a life strategy".

During the entire period of its existence, the Association acted and acts as an active defender of its members - publishing houses and book trade enterprises in the event of conflicts between them and the authorities, in the center and the localities, in matters related to lease relationships, illegal actions of tax administrations, other events that interfered with their effective work.

In addition to the Association, the protection of dozens of bookstores and libraries from their illegal eviction, publishing houses protected from unjustified oppression of fiscal services, etc.

The highest institution of UPBA is the General Meeting of its members, which, according to the Charter, is held once a year.
In the period between the meetings, management functions are performed by the Board consisting of 15 people.
The staff of the Association, which works on a paid basis, consists of three persons, namely:
— the president,
— CEO,
— an accountant.

The current composition of the Board of UPBA.

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