Expanding Cooperation with VRU Committees

USAID RADA: Next Generation Program organized a coordination meeting with MPs and representatives of Parliamentary Committees to share successful cooperation practices and identify further priorities.

"The Program takes into account the experience of foreign parliaments and creates new models and approaches to improve the efficiency of the VRU committees. We support the committees in communicating with various stakeholders, performing legislative and oversight functions, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of legislation" said Mårten Ehnberg, Director of the USAID RADA: Next Generation Program, in his welcoming speech and thanked for the cooperation.

In 2021, the Program launched "Model Committee" project and started with cooperation with three parliamentary committees. Today, this cooperation covers more than half of all committees of the Verkhovna Rada: work plans for the next year have already been signed with 11 committees and joint activities are being agreed with 3 more.

Project "Model Committee" helps the Verkhovna Rada committees:

• engage a wide range of stakeholders in lawmaking by holding public consultations, roundtables, and offsite meetings
• strengthen the control function by analyzing the application of legislation;
• improve communication skills of employees;
• strengthen legislative and analytical capacities, in particular, for aligning national legislation with the EU legal framework;
• interact more effectively with the government and relevant ministries;
• establish international partnerships by organizing foreign visits and online meetings with European colleagues.

The project regularly receives positive feedback from the top leadership of the Verkhovna Rada and the Secretariat with a request to expand this initiative. Representatives of the committees also assure that cooperation improves democratic procedures and has a positive impact on lawmaking.