Parliamentarians' activeness rating on New Year's Eve

Parliamentarians' activeness rating, developed by the OPORA, is a first summary of work done by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the seventh convocation before the New 2013 Year.

SHORT SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS

People's Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of seventh convocation have registered 196 bills during three weeks of their work. Most of them were developed by the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland faction (80, or 41% of their total number). Another leader in lawmaking process is the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), which average number of projects for one member of the faction is the highest (1,1 for one deputy). Representatives of the All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda remain the most passive. Although Svoboda members participated in the development of draft laws with the other political groups, they haven't registered any bills independently. The Party of Regions and the UDAR factions are not as active as leading factions, even though their party strength is high. The majority of non-faction deputies were not very active since the newly-elected parliament started its work. 20 of 30 bills, introduced by non-faction deputies are developed by the same member of parliament. The situation proves that former MP candidates were giving pre-electoral promises, without clear vision of ways to their achievement or already developed bills.

The head of the CPU faction Petro Symonenko has introduced the highest number of bills with attached authorship (33 projects). All the bills introduced by the CPU members have attached co-authorship of the party leader, what proves that there is a certain discipline in the faction. Non-faction MPs Serhii Mishchenko (20 projects) and a member of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland Volodymyr Yavorivskyi (17 projects) have taken the second and the third places in the activeness rating correspondingly. Mykola Tomenko, a member of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland faction, has introduced 15 bills and took the 4th place in the rating. Andrii Pavlovskyi and Yurii Odarchenko (All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland) are sharing the fifth place (13 projects).

The majority of bills are introduced in the spheres of social standards, political and humanitarian issues. We can see that post-election parliamentary activities keep up the pace of the election campaign, and newly-elected members of parliament want to demonstrate their intention to keep election promises. Furthermore, distribution of positions in committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proved the existence of double standards. Those very committees dealing with social and humanitarian issues have received little attention of members of parliament.

December 31, the New Year's Eve, is the 19th day of work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the sevenths convocation. Newly-elected members of parliament have taken an oath and came into power on December 12.

During this short period, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine have managed to choose executives, agree on the appointment of Mykola Azarov as the Prime Minister of Ukraine, distribute membership of parliamentary committees, and determine procedures for covering activities of MPs in mass media. The Verkhovna Rada have also terminated powers of some deputies due to their employment in Government. In connection to a late creation of committees, the parliament failed to start consideration of bills. However, members of Ukraine's newly-elected parliament actively registered their draft amendments to the laws.

LAW-MAKING ACTIVENESS RATING OF FACTIONS

According to OPORA's calculations, members of newly-elected parliament of Ukraine have registered 196 bills during three weeks of their work. The most active in law-making process were representatives of All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland, which have registered 80 bills. The All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland members have drafted 40% of all bills developed by newly-elected MPs. Taking into consideration the number of members, the CPU has the highest average index of legislative activeness (See table 1). The Communists faction, which consists of 31 members, have introduced 33 bills.

Table 1 Activeness of factions by the number of introduced bills

Non-faction deputies were quite active and have introduced 30 draft laws. However, 20 of 30 were developed by the MP of Ukraine Serhii Mishchenko, which has won in single-member district #98 (Kyiv oblast) as a self-nominated candidate. We remind, that 28 non-faction deputies work in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Members of the All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda were the most inactive during first weeks of the parliament's work. Besides those few bills, jointly introduced by deputies of this faction and representatives of other factions, the Svoboda members haven't developed any bills. One bill was developed by the All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda member Ruslan Koshulynskyi, who holds the position of Vice-Speaker and, therefore, he is a non-faction deputy.

Despite the party strength of the Party of Regions and the UDAR party, their activeness is low. 206 members of the Party of Regions have submitted 29 bills, and 41 members of the UDAR – 10. As for the Party of Regions, its legislative activities include initiatives of the government, which authorship formally belongs to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

14 bills are inter-factional, jointly submitted by members of different factions. Inter-factional bills were often considering organization of newly-elected parliament, and were defined as political compromises.

INDIVIDUAL LAW-MAKING ACTIVENESS RATING OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

The Civil Network OPORA has determined the top 5 active lawmakers of newly-elected Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine during first 3 weeks of its work. The head of the CPU faction Petro Symonenko is on the first place, whose authorship or co-authorship is attached to 33 bills. Co-authorship of the faction leader, formally attached to all draft laws proves that the party is disciplined. Serhii Mishchenko who has no affiliation with any faction is on the second place. The third and fourth places – are taken by representatives of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland Volodymyr Yavorivskyi and Mykola Tomenko correspondingly. Andrii Pavlovskyi and Yurii Odarchenko, members of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland faction, are sharing the 5th place.

Table 2 Top 5 of the most active lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the seventh convocation

DIVISION OF BILLS ACCORDING TO THEIR REGULATORY FUNCTION

OPORA has analyzed bills of newly-elected MPs according to their regulatory function. Most of them are considering standards of life and specific problems of particular social groups. However, it doesn't conform to the distribution of positions in committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. As you may already know, Committees which prepare matters concerning social issues were not that popular.

Members of parliament actively develop bills concerning political issues, regulations of central and local government bodies. Humanitarian issues remained topical (language, historical issues, counteraction to radical social movements, education and culture).

Economical and budgetary issues, as well as functioning of economic sectors, law-enforcement and justice issues are not crucial in draft laws developed by
MPs of Ukraine. Instead, committees which prepare matters concerning economical influence, were popular among members of parliament.^[2]

Table 3 Division of bills according to their regulatory function

 Regulatory functions of bills, used by OPORA in table 3

 "Economy and finances" – concerning economical regulations, property rights, tax and customs administration, housing, large, small and middle business;

 "Social issues and standards" – concerning social standards and guaranties for different social groups;

 "Humanitarian issues" – concerning educational and cultural issues, historical and ethical problems;

 "Politics and state administration" – concerning internal regulations of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, reforming state administration and the system of local self-government, the election system, announcement of local elections;

 "Law-enforcement system and justice" – concerning reforms in law-enforcement system and justice, changes to criminal and administrative responsibilities;

 "Foreign policy" – concerning international agreements, parliament's response to current issues of foreign policy;

 "Introduction of holidays and memorable dates" – concerning introduction of celebration of memorable and important historical dates.