Speaker of Ukraine’s Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk suggested that the Constitutional Court’s procedures should be improved, and the draft law no. 4533 was introduced to achieve that goal. Mr. Stefanchuk underlined that one of the key priorities of the Court’s reform is to ensure its transparency. His considerations were announced when he addressed the participants of the international conference “The role of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in the implementation of the state’s strategic course on gaining full EU membership” on June 29.
It should be noted that draft law no. 4533 was adopted in the first reading on April 15, 2021. It was, in general, positively assessed by the Venice Commission. However, the Commission outlined two shortcomings of the draft: it allows the appointment of an active member of the Government or Parliament as a judge of the Constitutional Court and does not address the system of appointments of judges of the Constitutional Court. The European Commission, in its Opinion on Ukraine’s application for EU membership, recommended granting Ukraine candidate status on conditions that Ukraine would take specific steps. One of them is to enact and implement legislation on a selection procedure for judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, including a pre-selection process based on evaluation of their integrity and professional skills, in line with Venice Commission recommendations.
On July 1, Ukraine's Parliament held a plenary meeting. VRU Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, alongside Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, signed a joint resolution, which notes the unity of three branches of power in obtaining full-fledged membership in the EU. Following that, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, gave a speech before the Parliament.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted Law no. 7310 that, among other things, foresees the establishment of the VRU's Parliamentary Research Service and urges the Speaker to organize the creation of the new institution.
In addition, the Parliament appointed Dmytro Lubinets, the Chairman of the VRU's Committee on Human Rights, as the Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights. The Verkhovna Rada also created an interim Commission on International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law. Oleksandr Bakumov, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Criminal Law and Crime Prevention of the VRU's Committee on Law Enforcement, became the Chairman of that commission.
The Parliament also adopted some legal acts in the field of national security and enforcement of martial law: military administrations of Kreminske and Rubizhne cities received additional powers (Resolution no. 7503), easing budgetary procedures for local self-governance bodies (Law no. 7426), and regulating peculiarities of labor relations under martial law (no. 7251). Moreover, some regulations on the National Healthcare Service were improved (Law 6306).
The Parliament also approved draft laws in the field of European integration in the first reading, the protection of intellectual property (draft laws nos. 6464 and 5552-1), regulation of geographical indication (draft law no. 5616), and modernization of collection of the official statistics (draft laws nos. 5108 and 5886). Other draft laws adopted in the first reading are the following: easing financial reports for business (draft law no. 6244), regulating water maintenance system (draft law no. 6478), allowing online court hearings (draft law no. 7404), informing citizens about court hearings via mobile Diia application (draft law no. 7315), regulating certain aspects of criminal procedures in wartime (draft law no. 7370).
mainly through narrative development and info production for social media, both in English and Ukraine daily. RANG team disseminated two issues of the information digest “Parliaments on the Frontline,” including the English language version and the Ukrainian one. English-language digest “Parliaments on the Frontline” has been sent to 18 900 members of foreign parliaments. On June 30, RANG experts provided more than 20 members of communication units of the VRU Secretariat with recommendations on the operation of social media pages of Ukraine’s Parliament and how to better engage with the audience using the proper time slots for posting.
On June 27, the USAID RADA: Next Generation Program organized a parliamentary workshop “Securing the constitutional status of the parliament in wartime”. The meeting gathered more than 40 experts and researchers from Ukraine and abroad, like representatives of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a leading think tank for parliamentarism development. Mr. Kornienko, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, noted that Parliament’s leaders always tried to achieve broad political consensus on laws listed in the agendas of the plenary meetings. However, he believes that parliamentary procedures need some amendments to meet current security threats.
While opening the event, Marc Ellingstad, Director of the Office of Democracy and Governance of the USAID Mission in Ukraine and Belarus, stressed the crucial role of a parliament in democratic procedures even in wartime. He noted that Ukrainian MPs had not just stayed in the country, in Kyiv, but taken responsibility for their work in the legislative field, and Ukraine's experience would be helpful for other countries and parliaments. Mr. Ellingstad also congratulated Ukraine for obtaining EU candidacy and admitted that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine had played a key role in that by conducting inter-parliamentary diplomacy, adopting laws needed for EU accession.
On June 28, USAID Rada: Next Generation Program provided the Parliamentary Center with technical assistance in conducting the All-Ukrainian Open Quiz: "Constitutional Night in Parliament," which gathered VRU leadership, MPs and youth representatives. Students were welcomed to participate in an online quiz regarding the Constitution, its main provisions and the specifics regarding Constitution’s approval on June 28, 1996. The event has been broadcasted online via the YouTube channel of the Rada TV channel and the Parliamentary Center’s YouTube channel, as well as its Facebook page. More than 2.000 high-school and university students viewed the quiz.
Oleksandr Korniyenko, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, joined the event and discussed the features of the Constitution with more than 140 university and high-school students, who participated in the quiz itself later. Mr. Korniyenko urged young Ukrainians to be active in political life, as the current convocation of the Parliament is the youngest in history and Ukraine’s parliament will need proactive citizens. During the event, he touched upon the remote voting process. According to him, it is a common practice for modern parliaments.
Oleksandr Korniyenko noted that before the approval of this type of voting in the parliament, the issues of identification of a voting MP should be resolved first.
On June 29, USAID “RADA: Next Generation” Program (RANG) hosted the International Parliamentary Technical Assistance Coordination Meeting (IPTAC) online. The goal of the meeting was to discuss the challenges that Ukraine’s Parliament has faced during the war and its operation and address the digital needs of the Parliament.
Tetyana Bibik, RANG Deputy Chief of Party, emphasized that the meeting aimed at identifying the challenges and needs of Ukraine’s Parliament in order to better adapt to the reality of war and ensure the stable work of the Parliament.
In his turn, Oleksandr Piskun, Democracy Project Management Specialist Office of Democracy and Governance USAID, outlined that in order to design the idea of remote voting in the Parliament’s plenary meetings, it would be necessary to consider the experience of VRU’s Committees’ meetings, as they switched to remote sessions since the COVID-19 pandemic has started. He also underlined that USAID would be willing to assist the Parliament in building essential capabilities to arrange that within the implementation of the USAID “RADA: Next Generation'' Program.
Oleksiy Sydorenko, Head of the VRU Computerized Department, noted that more than about 80% of the people’s inquiries since the full-scale war were sent in an online format, which shows that people appreciate the created online tools and software. He also noted that it was likely that the draft law on remote voting would be passed, as more than 200 MPs introduced the draft law.
From a practical point of view, Oleksandr Fedienko, MP, the Deputy Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Digital Transformation, noted that technological processes require ongoing work on the identification of the MPs when speaking about remote voting procedures. Moreover, according to him, the laws that amend the Constitution or regulate the provision of state bodies.
Yulia Shipilova, USAID “RADA: Next Generation” Program’s expert, shared the unique features of other parliament’s ability to propose amendments to the draft laws in the United States, Brazil, Latvia, Indonesia and other countries in order for this experience to be considered while designing the remote work of the Parliament.
Overall, 34 participants took part in the IPTAC meeting. Participants agreed to coordinate efforts in ensuring cybersecurity for the Parliament’s work, as well as for other state bodies of Ukraine to address the current and future challenges and to make the Parliament more transparent and accountable to its citizens.
The blog is dedicated to the International Day of Parliamentarians (June 30) and explains about Program’s activities and USAID-Ukraine's partnership with the Rada during current wartime challenges and in a future period of peace and rebuilding.
On June 30, 10 VRU staffers started to participate in an online course on post-legislative scrutiny (PLS), which will last for a month and will train VRU representatives in post-legislative scrutiny.
The main speaker of the seminar will be Maya Greguric, Head of the Directorate-General for European and International Law of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia. Participants. The event is organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia.
Participants will get acquainted with Poland, its structure of state authorities and the Parliament as well as support that has been provided to Ukraine during martial law. This lesson is the second in the series of online sessions “Parliaments of the World with Us”.
to discuss Bosnia’s experience in the EU accession, and the Parliament’s role in it. Registration is available till July 9: bit.ly/3akR9Y0
on Governance policy and procedures in conflict and post-conflict settings. Registration: bit.ly/survey_policy