The Civil Network OPORA continues to watch and analyze law-making activities of MPs of Ukraine of VII convocation. In this monthly review, the organization has covered the scope of law-making activities in the Parliament, activeness of MPs divided by involved factions and concerned issues.
The Party of Regions has registered the largest number of draft laws for the second month in a row. In March 2013, members of the Party of Regions have registered 86 draft laws and resolutions concerning different issues. The AUU Batkivshchyna, which has registered 64 draft laws, is on the second place. March was the most productive month for the Svoboda and the UDAR. MPs of the All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda have registered 20 legislative acts (11 draft laws and 9 draft resolutions) – and it's their best result for the last 4 months. Members of the UDAR faction have registered 17 legislative acts (12 draft laws and 5 draft resolutions), what is their best result for the first few months of law-making activities. The least active was the Communist Party of Ukraine which has registered only 13 draft bills in March.
Sectors and policies, which were the most popular among MPs, differentiated depending on the faction. The Party of Regions was focused on law-making activities in economic, finance and administration sectors, and has registered 38 corresponding bills. All-Ukrainian Union Batkivshchyna was also focused on these issues, 23 draft laws were registered. Ecological situation is also among priorities of the Svoboda faction (9 draft laws). The UDAR was focused on law-enforcement system (8 draft laws). The CPU (6 draft laws), as well as non-faction deputies (14 draft laws), focused their law-making activities on issues of social policy and standards.
Two representatives of the Batkivshchyna faction, namely Arsenii Yatseniuk (22 draft laws) and Pavlo Petrenko (21), turned out to be the most active law-makers in the whole parliament.
LAWS DRAFTED BY THE AUU BATKIVSHCHYNA
In March, the AUU Batkivshchyna parliamentary faction has independently registered 66 draft laws and resolutions, most of which concern administrative, economic, and state finance issues. Issues which concern law-enforcement system and justice, as well as fighting against corruption, ranked second place among priorities of the opposition faction. The sector of social policy and standards ranked third place with a little margin. The other issues, particularly, politics and state administration (5 initiatives), introduction of holidays and memorable dates (3), humanitarian issues and foreign affairs (1 draft law each), have received little attention of this parliamentary faction. Two representatives of the Batkivshchyna faction, namely Arsenii Yatseniuk (22 draft laws) and Pavlo Petrenko (21), turned out to be the most active law-makers in the whole parliament. However, leaders of faction are often automatically credited with the authorship of draft laws. It's interesting, that 6 of 9 the most active law-makers in the Verkhovna Rada – are representatives of the Batkivshchyna.
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The following initiatives of MPs worth our attention: draft Law on the Abolition of the State Land Bank; returning groundlessly written-off debts of the fuel and energy complex in the total amount over 24 billion UAH to the State Budget; securing the population with natural gas of domestic production; moratorium on limitation or suspension of electricity and heating supply to health care institutions and educational establishments. In the sector of social protection and standards, the most interesting initiatives are those aimed at boosting birth rates and maternity protection, as well as at solving housing issues of orphans. The organization of national referendum and local elections were also under attention. The majority of changes are introduced to the effective Law on Referendum, which provide new procedural norms and soften political influence of people's declaration of will.
Economics, finances, and administration
Andrii Ivanchuk and Kseniia Liapina have registered amendments to the Law on Distribution of Products, which provide restoration of the Interagency Committee on organization of conclusion and implementation of agreements for distribution of products, as an advisory institution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The latter, in accordance with the Law of Ukraine on Cabinet of Ministers, is allowed to have the temporary status, what makes its functions unclear and is contradictory to the goals which initiators of the draft law were focused on: to create favorable conditions for investors during realization of the corresponding agreements. Besides that, MPs have proposed to provide the body with authorities which are contradictory to its status.
The MP Serhii Terokhin independently and in cooperation with Volodymyrom Arievym has registered amendments to the Law on State Lotteries in Ukraine, which is to strengthen state control over the sector, increase income to the State Budget and combat concealed gaming. According to the author, an operator, which he is not intended to disclose, conducts forbidden games under the mask of state lotteries. In his draft law, he proposed to deliver winnings in cash with the corresponding tax deducted; to specify the name of electronic system used for lotteries and give the special state body access to it; to secure state control over production and circulation of lottery tickets; to coordinate the Law on State Lotteries in Ukraine with the insurance law, what will give the possibility to secure consumers from non-payment of cash prizes.
A group of MPs, namely Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, Stepan Kubiv, Volodymyr Shkvaryliuk, Maksym Burbak, have proposed to abolish the State Land Bank, and make corresponding amendments to the Land Code of Ukraine, and the Law of Ukraine on Banks and Banking activities. The initiators want to deprive the CMU of right to form statutory capital of the State Land Bank; to forbid deals related to land plots and property rights; to commission the CMU with liquidation of the State Land Bank OJSC. They motivate such initiative by the desire to bring the legislation in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine. According to the authors, the legislative and normative base, which regulates activities of the Land Bank, is contradictory to the Article of the Constitution of Ukraine which provides that the earth, air, water and other natural resources belong to the citizens of Ukraine. On behalf of Ukrainian people, state authorities and local self-government bodies are realizing proprietary rights in accordance with the Constitution. The State Land Bank, according to the author, belongs to such authorities.
Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko and Andrii Pyshnyi have registered the draft Law on returning groundlessly written-off debts of the fuel and energy complex to the State Budget, the total amount of which is over 24 billion UAH. The Naftogaz of Ukraine NJSC, Gas of Ukraine SC, SC Ukrgazvydobuvannya, Ukrtransgaz SC, and Chornomornaftogaz PJSC have indebted over 24 billion UAH to the State Budget, including penalties and fines.This liberal initiative should improve financial and economic situation in gas supply, power supply, and housing and communal services, improve the efficiency of housing and communal services, as well as gas and power supply. However, according to the authors, despite debts were written-off, declared goals were not reached. Therefore, costs shall be returned to the State treasury.
Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, Andrii Pyshnyi and Volodymyr Shkvaryliuk have introduced an initiative on making amendment to the procedure of providing gas supply to the population of Ukraine. MPs have proposed to cover year amount of natural gas provided to citizens of Ukraine by natural gas mined on the territory of Ukraine, within continental shelf and/or exclusive (sea) economic Zone of Ukraine; to create insurance reserve of natural gas for securing its continuous supply to the population.
A group of MPs has proposed to secure transparent formation of rates/tariffs for housing and communal services, making payments for provided (produced) services, attracting budget and extrabudgetary costs necessary for financing housing and communal sector. MPs have registered a draft Law on the Housing and Communal Services Market.
Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, Andrii Pyshnyi, Liliia Hrynevych and Maksym Burbak have registered amendments to the Tax Code, aimed at stimulating family entrepreneurship. Initiators have proposed to introduce a term for performing such business and reduce single tax rates for the corresponding subjects. The proposition not to include working family members of sole proprietor or owner of legal entity when calculating the general number of individuals which are employed by the single tax payer is definitely innovative.
6 Mps of Ukraine have registered draft Law on improvement of energy efficiency in housing and communal sector (HCS). The document secures goals and priorities of the State policy in HCS, principles for increasing energy efficiency, strategy directions and methods for realization of the State policy in energy efficiency of HCS, as well as anticipated results of their implementation. The concept determines key principles of governing the corresponding policy: transparency and openness, democracy, regularity and efficiency, innovation.
Tetiana Sliuz has proposed to reduce the time for public procurement, in particular: from 30 to 20 days – submission of the advertisement on public procurement to the corresponding Authorized body – after publishing it in the official state printed edition on public procurement issues, as well as competitive bidding or qualification documentation; submission of competitive bidding proposals; submission of preliminary competitive bidding proposals by participants; submission of qualification proposals; from 20 to 10 days – period for consideration, assessment, and choosing the winner of procurement procedure; by shortened procedure – period for consideration, assessment, and choosing the winner of procurement made by shortened procedure; from 14 to 10 days – conclusion of an agreement on procurement with one participant according to the results of procurement procedure. Although this draft law is fragmentary, it is raising an important issue of rationalizing procedures, which should secure regular provision of goods and services, to health care institutions and educational establishments inclusive.
Viacheslav Kyrylenko, Vasyl Kravchuk, Valerii Lunchenko, Mykhailo Apostol, and Ihor Brychenko have registered draft Law on Citizen Gardening, which regulates relations between state authorities, local self-government bodies, legal entities and citizens, pertaining to the use of land for collective or individual gardening and activities of gardening organizations, introducing terminology and conceptual apparatus, settling the issue of privatization, solving disputes of and establishing liquidation procedure for gardening organizations etc.
MP Kanivel Oleh has proposed to amend the Budget Code of Ukraine and include the term "out-of-school education" to the list of national education branches. According to an MP, it will facilitate financing of the out-of-school education not only from local budgets, which often don't possess necessary resources to finance this sector, but also from the state budget.
Ivan Kyrylenko and Vasyl Kravchuk have initiated amendments to the Land Code of Ukraine regarding regulations the communal ownership land. The draft law determines the policy and mechanism for transferring the right to collectively owned land for legal entities, which are legal successors of communal agricultural enterprises, and the right to public lands of gardening organizations.
Kostiantyn Bondariev has registered draft law, which provides making amendments to the Law of Ukraine on Motor Vehicle Transport, particularly formation of and providing open access to registers of public bus routes, establishment of the corresponding conceptual terminology, determining rights and obligations of transport carriers and state authorities, local self-government bodies, which secure organization of passenger transportation. The draft law also provides the administrative responsibility for failing to conduct competitions for passenger transportation on public bus routes.
Vasyl Pazyniak has initiated a moratorium on limitation or suspension of electricity and heating supply to health care institutions and educational establishments.According to the MP, the draft law is aimed at protecting constitutional rights of citizens on life, education and medical services, realization of which is directly dependent on constant electricity and heating supply to health care institutions and educational establishments. Another initiative of Mr. Pazyniak concerns the prohibition on giving out patents on medical devices, which efficiency is not proved in practice. The legal protection is not spread on medical devices which efficiency is not proved by domestic research. The author provides a list of medicines on which consumers have complained. The MP proposed to solve the problem of pseudo-medicines by prohibition to give out patents if there were no proper clinical researches and the efficiency of medicines wasn't proved.
Derevlianyi Vasyl, Apsotol Mykhailo and Volodymyr Boiko have proposed to settle the issue of acquiring and termination of management in personal peasant farms. Such issues shall be solved by farm members, and the corresponding regulations should be settled for every separate group.
Tetiana Sliuz has registered amendments to the Law of Ukraine on Public Procurement, which secure honest competition among participants during public procurement. The Author proposed to deprive customers of possibility to correct detected in the proposal errors and allow to reject it; oblige the customer to reject proposals in case bidders are connected between themselves; provide not only announcement, but also demonstration of information about participants during disclosure of competitive bids.
MP Yurii Vozniuk has proposed to change technical approach to an expert monetary valuation of land. The MP is convinced that it's necessary to compare prices on such land plots, fixed on the very day the decision to purchase such land for public use is taken.
Lunchenko Valerii, Brychenko Ihor, Kupchak Volodymyr, and Holovko Valerii have registered draft Law on priority right to lease the land in case of purchasing a building or structure located thereon. Lawmakers are convinced that the effective legislation don't secure the principle of unity when selling land plot and real estate on it. Therefore, MPs have also proposed to establish a brief period of time (up to 10 days) and a procedure of notifying the lessor of a land plot about the change of real estate owner, so that they had the possibility to conclude the corresponding agreements. Lunchenko Valerii, Brychenko Ihor, Kupchak Volodymyr have also submitted a legislative initiative on providing financial support to agricultural producers, which have built or reconstructed greenhouses. The authors have proposed to provide state reimbursement of some expenses on building and construction of greenhouses to grow vegetables, mushrooms and vegetable seedlings.
Valerii Dubil and Andrii Senchenko have proposed to set up rates for land plots, provided to gardening organizations, including those belonging to gardening and/or country houses of physical persons in amount of 0.03% of normative value per unit area of arable land in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea or in oblast.
Law-enforcement system, justice, and combating corruption
Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, and Stepan Kubiv have proposed to strengthen criminal accountability for violation of regulations regarding remuneration of labor. Groundless delay of salary, stipend, pension, or the other payments determined by the law for more than ten calendar days, intentionally committed by a director of an enterprise, establishment or organization, regardless of ownership form, or a person, registered as a subject of entrepreneurial activity, according to the authors, shall be punished by a fine in amount from one thousand five hundred to two thousands five hundred untaxed minimum incomes, including possible deprivation of a right to hold similar positions or be engaged in the certain activities for up to three years; for more than one month – shall be punished by a fine in amount from three to four thousands untaxed minimum incomes, or imprisonment for up to two years, including deprivation of a right to hold similar positions or be engaged in the certain activities for up to three years; if the violation was caused by inappropriate use of funds allocated for the payment, it shall be punished by a fine in amount from five to six thousands untaxed minimum incomes or imprisonment for at minimum five years, including deprivation of a right to hold similar positions or be engaged in the certain activities for up to three years.
Hennadii Moskal has proposed to reconsider the Law of Ukraine on Road Traffic and complement it with regulations regarding the use of reflectors on clothes by cyclists and drovers when it's dark outside. Such amendments shall decrease the number of traffic accidents which are caused by low visibility.
Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, Stepan Kubiv, and Volodymyr Shkvaryliuk have also proposed to strengthen accountability for discrimination in the labor sector, connected to race, skin color, political, religious, and other convictions, gender, ethnic, social and foreign origin, age, health condition, disability, suspicion or presence of HIV/AIDS, marital and property status, family responsibilities, residence, membership in a union or other citizen associations, participation in a strike, appeal or intention appeal to the court or other bodies for the protection of rights, for language or other qualities which are not connected to the type of work or conditions of its execution, if it's not provided directly by the law, according to the authors, shall be punished by a fine in amount of three to five hundred untaxed minimum incomes.
Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, Andrii Pyshnyi and Andrii Ivanchuk have proposed to and adapt it to European judicial standards reduce the staff of law-enforcement bodies (Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Security Service of Ukraine, State Guard Department of Ukraine) and adapt it to European standards. The authors are referring to worldwide figures – 300 officers of the law for 100 thousand citizens, in USSR – 300 officers for 100 000 citizens, and in Ukraine – 786. This very deputy group has registered another draft law, regarding improvement of instruments for preventing and combating corruption. The authors have proposed to broaden the circle of authorized bodies in fighting against corruption, by creating a special state body with a status of combating corruption and malfeasance; to determine the term "potential conflict of interest" on legislative level; to provide special verification of data provided by candidates for elected positions; to determine anti-corruption limitations for persons which are elected (appointed) on positions, which are connected to the state or local governance; secure yearly obligatory verification of declared income, property, expenses and liabilities; change legislative definition of the term "family members" by adding parents to the list of family members etc. Another draft law registered by these four MPs provides intensification of responsibility for violation of legislation regarding preventing and combating corruption. The authors have proposed to establish criminal liability for the submission of knowingly false data in declaration on income, property, expenses and liabilities by persons, which are executing state or local governance functions.
MPs Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, Stepan Kubiv, and Volodymyr Shkvaryliuk have registered amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine in connection to ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on adulteration of medicines and similar offenses which threaten health care. MPs have proposed to establish criminal liability for production, purchase, transportation, transfer, possession with intent to sell or selling knowingly adulterated medicines or knowingly adulterated medical equipment; smuggling of adulterated medicines or adulterated medical equipment; clinical trials of medicines or medical equipment without written consent of the patient or his legal representative, or in respect of a minor or incompetent, if these actions caused the patient's death or other grave consequences.
Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, and Andrii Pyshnyi have proposed to regulate activities of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine: quorum for meetings consists of 15 judges; the decision is to be taken by not less than 30 judges; a proposal regarding candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine may submitted by not less than forty-five MPs of Ukraine of the constitutional complement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; the dismissal of a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine may be initiated by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine or not less than forty-five MPs of Ukraine of the constitutional complement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, and Andrii Ivanchuk have registered an anti-corruption initiative to fight against inappropriate use of state funds during public procurement. The authors have proposed to establish the certain transparent procurement procedure in one participant; provide that the procurement of goods (works, services) by the state. public, and communal enterprises, as well as business entities, which state or communal share is more than 50%, shall be conducted in accordance with the Law of Ukraine on Public Procurement; establish safeguards to avoid paying taxes on income that is received by non-residents; to determine the term "conflict of interest" and establish mechanisms for its regulation etc.
Tetiana Sliuz has proposed to establish responsibility, particularly fines for hindering the work of MP of Ukraine or deputies of local council. The author is referring to a tendency of ignoring requests (appeals) or answering off the point of question, which was put by MPs or deputies of local council.
Hennadii Moskal has registered amendment to the CrPC of Ukraine on improving investigation activities. The author has proposed to prevent destruction of material evidences, which were removed with violation of the procedure, what may cause irreparable damages to the rights and interests of citizens. Besides that, the MP has proposed to broaden the functions of investigator and give him the right to give permission, for example, on handing over body to relatives, and make the public prosecutor less overloaded in such a way. In his another draft law, the MP has proposed to stop operation of some regulations of the Code of Practice of Ukraine, which regulate the use of electronic control devices. MIA of Ukraine has informed in its letter as of 2/20/2013 that the number of persons which are placed under home detention has almost reached the number of electronic control devices produced by the ZM company (Israel), which are necessary to fix the location of abovementioned individuals. Besides that, there are no funds allocated to purchase additional devices. Therefore, there is no possibility to execute judgments of courts on home detention of suspects, or accused persons in accordance with the requirements of new CrPC of Ukraine. The third initiative of the MP concerns provisions of the CrPC of Ukraine regarding the use of polygraph (lie detector). The draft law provides adding a new article 264-1 of the CrPC of Ukraine on Verification of Credibility of Testimony on Polygraph (lie detector). It is also proposed in the bill to determine general requirements for such verification during criminal proceedings, and its necessity by the corresponding court experts of the state specialized institutions. The MP Moskal has registered amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine on establishing responsibility for xenophobia, anti-Semitism, racial, religious, and other forms of intolerance. He has proposed to determine materials of xenophobic and anti-Semitic content, as well as fascism and neo-Nazism. The MP has proposed to distinguish new violations, particularly making inscriptions in publicplaces, producing or distributing leaflets, posters, and other printed materials of xenophobic and anti-Semitic content, or with features of racial, religious and other forms of intolerance, expressing opinions with abovementioned features in public and spreading similar information in mass media. The responsibility should be established according to the threat and damage which can be caused to society – fines in amount from seven to seventy untaxed minimum incomes, correctional activities for up to two months or administrative detention for fifteen days with confiscation of objects of crime.
Volodymyr Yavorivskyi and Vasyl Pazyniak have registered the Resolution on the creation of a Temporary investigation commission of the VRU on investigation of legitimacy of signing the Agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the presence of the Russian Federation's Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian territory by the President of Ukraine V.F. Yanukovych and on verification of observance of basic statements of agreement on the presence of the Russian Federation's Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian territory by the Russian Federation.
The MP Mykola Katerynchuk has proposed to improve administrative procedures and amend the corresponding Core, providing that Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal, as a court of first instance, should consider appeals against actions, acts, and inaction of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine, Supreme Council of Justice, as well as appeals against actions, decisions, and inaction of the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, appeals against actions, decisions, and inaction of the Central Election Commission, members of the Central Election Commission, cases on early termination of powers of MP of Ukraine; Code of administrative procedure of Ukraine (CAPU) and Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine (HAC of Ukraine) correspondingly to consider cases as a court of first instance and to review court decisions as a court of appeal; to shorten the board of justices on consideration of administrative cases on appeals against actions, acts, and inaction of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine, Supreme Council of Justice, as well as appeals against actions, decisions, and inaction of the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine from five judges to three.
Politics and state administration
Mykola Tomenko has registered the draft Resolution on Report of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council for 2012. Having considered the report, the corresponding committee has recommended not to approve it. According to MPs, when realizing strategic target on introduction of digital standards of TV broadcasting in Ukraine, the National Council has committed systematic violations of effective legislation, what had resulted in monopolization of the digital broadcasting market and caused a threat of losing state control in the field of information security.
Serhii Sas and a group of parliamentarians have introduced a draft law which determines the procedure for counteraction to the pluralism among MPs. The amendments are complicating the procedure of early termination of powers in case the deputy's mandate is incompatible with other areas of activity. Thus, the termination in proposed wording is executed by a court appeal of the VRU Chairman to on the basis of the decision of the Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure during 10 days after it is supported by the constitutional majority of MPs.
Ruslan Kniazevych has proposed to improve some regulations of the Law of Ukraine on National Referendum. In particular, the procedure of initiation, preparation, organization, and conduct of referendum. The law provides possibility to initiate the national referendum on adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in new wording, but exclusively in case the Constitution of Ukraine contains a special procedure of initiation and conduct of such referendum, and a special procedure of initiation and conduct of the national referendum in order to determine people's will regarding adoption of a new Constitution of Ukraine. Political parties will be allowed to become subjects of referendum process (supporters or opponents of the issues submitted to referendum) and participate in all its procedures in order to facilitate open and democratic referendum. Therefore, parties have received the right to have a representative with the deliberative vote in the Central Election Commission, as well as authorized persons in the national district and territorial districts, what allowed them to participate in formation of administrative bodies of referendum and to control their activities NGOs were allowed to have observers and official observers will receive the status of subjects of referendum process. It was also proposed to specify requirements for referendum, its clarity, unambiguity, and comprehensibility etc.
Volodymyr Shulha has proposed to amend the Law of Ukraine on elections of deputies to the Verkhovna Rada of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, deputies of local councils, village, town and city heads regarding organization of territorial election commissions. The draft law provides involving specialists and technical personnel for institutional, legal and technical support by territorial election commissions during post-election period.
The MP Tetiana Donets has registered draft law on making amendments to the Law of Ukraine on elections of deputies to the Verkhovna Rada of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, deputies of local councils, village, town and city heads. The author has proposed to determine that extraordinary local elections shall be called on the last Sunday of six-day term after the corresponding decision is taken, but not later than ninety days after the decision on early termination of powers of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, deputies of local councils, village, town and city heads is taken by a local referendum or the corresponding council. Besides that, it is proposed to make the corresponding amendments to the Law of Ukraine on Local Self-Government in Ukraine, according to which the session of the corresponding council on early termination of powers of deputies of local councils, village, town and city heads shall be convened not later than five days after the reason emerged, and the issue of special elections shall be considered by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine during five days after the corresponding decision is taken by a local referendum or the corresponding council.
Social issues and standards
MPs Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, Stepan Kubiv, Volodymyr Shkvaryliuk, and Andrii Ivanchuk have initiated a draft law on cancellation of the validity of the Law of Ukraine on the Procedure of Reforming Health Care System in Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk Oblasts and Kyiv city, and as a result, restoration of health care institutions in Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk oblasts and Kyiv city which were opened before the law entered into operation.
Arsenii Yatseniuk, Pavlo Petrenko, Andrii Pyshnyi and Liliia Hrynevych have proposed to raise the birth rates in Ukraine and promote motherhood by providing monthly minimum subsistence payment to mothers who bring up three or more children under 18 years, and give father the right to get paid leave for seven calendar days after the birth of a child. By its another bill, this very group of deputies provides establishment of a special taxation regulations for mothers having many children (the tax rate depends on the number of children that were born (adopted) and are raised by a mother: 2-10%, 3-5%, 5-0%); fostering development of the preschool education network by including costs for their construction, reconstruction and repair to the gross expenses that are taken into account when determining the tax object. Deputies have also registered a separate bill to ensure labor rights of young people. Until July 1, 2014 it was proposed increase (up to 15% of the average number of full-time employees during the preceding calendar year) quota jobs for young people who graduated or stopped learning in secondary, vocational and higher educational institutions, or are released from military or alternative (non-military) service, and which are employed for the first time.
The group of MPs headed by Andrii Ivanchuk is concerned about the setting of price for medicines and therapeutic agents from the minimal range. MPs have created a legal framework to monitor prices and tariffs in order to study the level, structure and dynamics of prices on medicines and medical supplies, as well to introduce the corresponding decisions and propositions of the Ministry of Economic Development, Antimonopoly Committee, and the National Bank of Ukraine in order to improve the price situation
Andrii Pavlovskyi and Oleksandr Turchynov have proposed to increase the duration of the main annual leave on 4 days – from 24 to 28 calendar days for a year of work, and increase an annual leave on 4 days for industrial personnel in coal, oil shale, metallurgy, electric power industry, and for employees in opencast mining or working on open excavation, pits, quarries and mines, in building and construction, in mine construction, in transportation and mineral reparation, workers engaged in underground mining operations and cuts, quarries and mines with the depth of 150 meters and more, non-military employees in rescue units; and on 2 days – for individuals belonging to disability group III.
The MP Vasyl Pozyniak wants to nullify financial assistance in amount of double monthly salary and free permits for sanatorium and resort services for MPs of Ukraine, as well as to delete the regulation of the Law of Ukraine on the Status of National Deputies, according to which the MP, whose powers are terminated, is given a permit for sanatorium services, and after retirement he is provided with transportation to the hospital, polyclinic, or for the other needs connected to improvement of health or medical treatment limited to ten hours a month at the expense of costs, provided by the Law on the State Budget of Ukraine. The MP has also registered amendments to the effective legislation pertaining to strategic directions of maternity and childhood protection in Ukraine: birth rates boosting and maternity protection; providing perinatal and neonatal care; improving children's health rates.
Senchenko Andrii and Liudmyla Denysova have proposed to adopt regulations on the size of the salary (wage rate) for the employees of wage category I, on the basis of which determines wage rates for workers and organizations, financed from the budget. In their another draft law, MPs have proposed to amend the State Budget of Ukraine in order to provide permanent dwelling for orphans and children deprived of parental care after the stay in the family of custodian or guardian, foster family, family-type orphanage, schools for orphans and children deprived of parental care, as well as after graduation.
As long as the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has not yet adopted a resolution on salary rates for wage category I of the Unified Tariff System, which covers wages of employees of public sector organizations and institutions, MPs Pavlo Petrenko, Andrii Pyshnyi and Liliia Hrynevych have registered the corresponding resolution. The problem is that the basic salary rate for employees of wage category I remains the same as it was on December 1, 2012 - 839 UAH. The minimal salary, according to the Law of Ukraine on State budget of Ukraine for 2013, is 1,147 UAH. Therefore, MPs have proposed to take urgent measures to update the wage rate of category I for 2013.
The MP Hennadii Zubko has registered amendments to the Law of Ukraine on Humanitarian Aid, what, according to the author, "will help to determine loads which are in customs supervision zone as humanitarian aid and will reduce the time in customs supervision zone and speed up receiving this aid by people". In particular, it was proposed to supplement Article 5 of this Law with new regulations which provide the procedure for determining the load as a humanitarian aid by the central executive body which is realizing the state policy in social protection sector, as well as procedure for reconsideration of these documents in case the recipient has removed reasons for considering this load as not humanitarian aid.
DRAFT LAWS SUBMITTED BY THE PARTY OF REGIONS OF UKRAINE
Members of the Party of Regions have registered 86 draft legislative acts in March. 12 of them are different draft resolutions. In most cases, these documents propose adoption of some laws in the first reading and continue its drafting. It should be mentioned that MPs of the PR have registered three laws: on Notary Service Board, on Medicines, on Mandatory Medical Insurance. 52 MPs of the faction (25%) participated in law-making activities, and 156 MPs haven't submitted any documents. Yaroslav Sukhyi and Serhii Horokhov, which have registered 6 draft laws each, turned out to be the most active in the faction. Most draft laws concern the following issues: economics and administration (44%), law-enforcement and justice (22%), and social (16%). The smallest number of registered documents concerned ecology issues (1%) and introduction of holidays (2%). None of draft laws concerned foreign affairs and defense.
Administration, economics and finances
Draft laws which belong to this sector concern a wide range of issues: land relations and amendments to state regulations on grain market; regulations on public enterprises and their exemption from income tax; tax benefits for defense and aircraft-construction sectors; exploitation of nuclear facilities and payments for their fuel.
Three draft bills of Valerii Omelchenko should be particularly mentioned. He has proposed to amend a number of laws and allow state authorities to pay their debts dated before January 1, 2013 by treasury bills. Valerii Omelchenko has proposed to consider them as delivery of the corresponding funds, and empower the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to regulate issues which pertain to their issuing and circulation.
The following two initiatives pertain to the administrative sector: the draft law submitted by Kostiantyn Huzenko, who deems it necessary to allow changing designated purpose of land that does not meet zoning plan of the territory; draft law submitted by Vladyslav Lukianov, which proposes to increase expenses on the program on Land Reform by 255 million UAH, fails to provide detailed planning on possible sources of these costs, but suggests to cover a part of expenses in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
Social sphere
14 draft laws which concern issues in the social sphere were registered in March. Two of them propose to provide payments to different categories of citizens: those participated in nuclear accident mitigation and nuclear testing, and citizens who live in polluted industrial areas. Registered draft laws also provide that: institutions and establishments, regardless of their ownership form, shall take students on internship according to quotas; charitable aid for medical treating of physical persons shall be exempted from taxation.
Serhii Horohov has registered in the Verkhovna Rada a number of draft amendments to laws on pension system and social protection, in which he proposed to switch to accumulative pension system since January 1, 2004. The MP has also proposed in his another bill to amend regulations on recalculation of pensions.
There also were two independent draft laws submitted by MPs. Yaroslav Sukhyi has registered draft Law on Obligatory State Medical Insurance. It provides that state medical insurance shall be obligatory and gives procedures for its functioning. It also provides creation of the corresponding fund, which will include all the insured persons. Employees or other social funds may take responsibilities of the insurer. The draft law was proposed to come into operation as of January 1, 2015. Tetiana Bakhtieieva has submitted a draft Law on Medicines, which specifies the concept of medicines, provides regulations for their trade and prescription.
Humanitarian issues
Three MPs of Ukraine have registered five legislative initiatives. Draft laws registered by Mykola Dmytruk concern the procedure for hiring and dismissal of directors of secondary communal educational institutions by the approval of executive bodies. Valentyn Nechyporenko has drafted amendments to the Law on Education according to which promotional and informational activities in secondary schools will belong to main responsibilities of universities. Such advertising should cover all the key issues of university admission and general information about higher educational institutions. These amendments also provide that such activities shall be paid, i.e. HEIs should pay schools. In his another draft law, Nechyporenko has proposed to amend the Tax Code, according to which schools will receive one more source of financing – private HEIs, which were proposed to pay taxes for schools where their students had studied.
Politics and state administration
Only two bills of seven submitted by MPs are worthy. In draft amendments to the Law on the Status of National Deputies and on Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine, submitted by Oleksandr Yefremov, it was proposed to establish procedure for depriving MP of a mandate and termination of his powers. Another project submitted by Volodymyr Makeienko provides making personnel changes in committees: to appoint Inna Bohoslovska as the First Deputy Head of the Committee on European Integration; Yan Tabachnyk as a Secretary of the Organized Crime Control and Anti-Corruption Committee; to transfer Viktor Yanukovych from the Committee on Informatization and Information Technologies to the Committee on Transport and Communications.
Law-enforcement system and justice
This sector is the second by the number of submitted bills. Vitalii Zhuravskyi was the most active MP in March, he has registered 5 bills of 19. Iryna Berezhna and Iryna Horina have registered an independent draft Law of Ukraine on Notary Service Board.
Some registered bills pertain to judiciary system and status of judges: canceling demand regarding the submission of a paper by candidates for judges; Iryna Berezhna has proposed to give judges the right to choose between pension and permanent alimony in amount of 80% of remuneration of a judge without tax payment and without taking into account the salary of a judge after resignation; MPs Serhii Matviienkov and Volodymyr Boiko have proposed to give economic courts of appeal the right to reestablish the missed deadline for filing an appeal; Volodymyr Pysarenko has submitted a proposition to conduct parliamentary hearings on May 22, 2013 on the topic: "The process of implementing judicial decisions in Ukraine."
The most important bills registered by Vitalii Zhuravskyi, according to OPORA, is draft amendments to the Criminal Code, which provide that time limit for prosecution is suspended if the person was elected or appointed to the position which gives personal immunity according to the Constitution. The time limit for prosecution is to be resumed after the person is deprived of immunity. If a person has committed a crime when having immunity, the time limit for prosecution is counted after the deprivation or loss of the immunity. Other bills of the MP propose to specify the Criminal Code and the corresponding punishment for light and grave bodily injuries caused to a child. Vitalii Zhuravskyi has also proposed to release a person from criminal responsibility for giving or receiving bribes in case of voluntary confession before the pre-court investigation.
Some other bills, drafted by Anton Yatsenko, Mykola Dzhyha, and Vladyslav Atroshenko, provide criminal responsibility for conduct of dog fighting, home production or selling strong alcohol drinks, and supplement the Law of Ukraine on Combating Drug Trafficking and Consumption with a paragraph on monitoring the situation in this sector, determining which measures can be taken for monitoring, who is supposed to be responsible for it, and that the Cabinet of Ministers shall establish the procedure and requirements of such monitoring.
Introduction of holidays and memorable dates
Valentyna Liutikova and Volodymyr Pylypenko have registered one draft resolution of the Verkhovna Rada each. Volodymyr Pelypenko has proposed a resolution on celebration of 100th anniversary of Kiev scientific research institute of judicial examinations of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, and a Valentine Liutikova, who was elected in district #5 (Kerch city), has registered a draft resolution on granting Kerch an honorary status of City-Hero.
Environment
Only Volodymyr Prodyvus and Volodymyr Saldo have submitted draft laws in this sector. They have proposed amendments which determine different types of waste and useful components in the waste. It was also proposed to regulate the term "disposal tip" and technologies for recycling of waste, to establish a State Register of waste manufacturers and a register if waste disposal.
DRAFT LAWS SUBMITTED BY THE CPU
In March 2013, members of the CPU faction have registered 13 legislative initiatives in the parliament. They include: 4 draft laws and 1 draft resolution on making amendments to effective regulations, 4 draft Resolutions on taking the Law of Ukraine as a basis, and 2 draft Resolutions on returning some legal documents for reconsideration, and 2 draft Resolutions on introduction of memorable dates. However, it's not the best efficiency coefficient for the Communist party, which members have submitted twice more documents in December 2012 and February 2013 – 33 and 32 bills respectively. Legislative initiatives submitted by the CPU concern social issues (6 documents) and financial and economic (3). In March, state administration, foreign affairs, and security and defense issues were not considered by the CPU.
As well as in the last month, Petro Tsybenko, who is the Head of the Committee on Social Policy and Labor, is the CPU leader in law-making, as long as he was developing 5 documents. Spiridon Kilinkarov, the Head of the Committee on construction, city planning, housing service and regional politics, has drafted 4 bills.
Social issues and standards
Most of submitted draft laws concern social policy. In particular, representatives of the Communist party Petro Symonenko and Petro Tsybenko have registered draft Law (#2547 of 3/15/2013), which provide sanctions for the delay of salary, stipend, pension, or the other payments determined by the law, as well as making amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, according to which a person shall be released from criminal responsibility if the fine for the whole period of delay was paid. However, the Central scientific expert office remarked that lawmakers do not provide mechanisms which regulate responsibility for the delay of salary, stipend and pension, as long as they do not make any amendments to Laws of Ukraine on Education, on Higher Education, on Vocational Education, on General Mandatory State Pension Insurance.
Petro Symonenko and Iryna Spirina have registered draft Law (#2661 of 3/29/2013) on making amendments to some laws of Ukraine on health care system reform. In particular, it secures providing free medical attendance to children and teenagers in medical and recreational facilities, children's outpatient clinics, departments, dispensaries, hospitals, health resorts and other health facilities, as well as in private physician offices. Besides that, it was proposed to call local referendum to take decision on liquidation, reorganization and optimization of health care facilities of state and communal ownership. Moreover, the Communists have proposed to cancel the validity of the Law of Ukraine on the Procedure of Reforming Health Care System in Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk Oblasts and Kyiv city, which was a pilot project in reforming health care system in Ukraine.
Petro Tsybenko has registered bill (#2623 of 3/22/2013) on making amendments to the Law of Ukraine on Humanitarian Aid, which secures functioning of Commissions on on Humanitarian Aid issues under the Cabinet of Ministers, Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and oblast administrations as well as Kyiv and Sevastopol City State administrations, which are supposed to regulate the situation of receiving humanitarian aid by Ukraine from foreign donors. MPs were asking about this very issue the Minister of Social policy Nataliia Korolevska, who is responsible for recognition of humanitarian aid, its delivery, registration and further distribution, but have received only a story about cat food in answer. Adoption of this draft law, according to the authors, could facilitate the fast unloading of humanitarian aid, shorten the time in customs supervision zone and speed up receiving this aid by people.
Economics, finances, and administration
Spiridon Kilinkarov has registered in the VRU the draft Resolution (#1043/П of 3/18/2013) on setting the draft Law of Ukraine on moratorium on the compulsory sale of dwelling as a foundation, which establishes moratorium on the compulsory sale of dwelling during the financial crisis period, but not earlier before 1 January 2015, until indebted salaries, stipends, and other debts are payed to the citizens.
Law-enforcement system, justice, and combating corruption
In order to minimize corruption threats in justice system, Serhii Hordiienko has registered draft Law (#2660 of 3/29/2013) on making amendments to the Economic Procedural Code of Ukraine (on appealing against refusal of the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine for consideration of a case in the Supreme Court of Ukraine), which allows appealing the resolution of the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine on refusal for consideration of a case in the Supreme Court of Ukraine during 5 days after its submission. In the explanatory note to the draft law, the MP explains that Economic Procedural Code of Ukraine shall be improved as long as an appeal for reconsideration of court decisions to the Supreme Court of Ukraine is submitted through the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine. Therefore, he secured the possibility to appeal the decision taken by the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine on refusal for consideration of a case in the Supreme Court of Ukraine.
Introduction of holidays and memorable dates
MPs Viktoriia Babych and Olha Levchenko have registered a draft Resolution (#2497 of 3/7/2013) on celebration of 75th anniversary of Sumy oblast at the state level. In particular, it was proposed to allocate budget funds for repairing of the Romantyka Youth Center and a communal establishment Okhtyrsk city center for culture and leisure, as well as to ensure wide coverage of events connected to the 75th anniversary of the Sumy region in the media, and to produce a series of stamps for the occasion. The proposition to hold thematic lessons, lectures, concerts, literary and artistic competitions, concerts in educational institutions in January-April 2014 is a purely Soviet tradition.
Similar events are secured by the draft Resolution (#2607 of 3/21/2013), registered by MPs Petro Tsybenko, Victoria Babych, and Olga Levchenko, on celebration of the 70th anniversary of "Carpathian raid" partisan union Kim Kovpak, in 2013 at the state level.
DRAFT LAWS OF AU SVOBODA
The last month appeared to be the most productive in terms of the law-making activity for the deputies of AU Svoboda faction. During March 2013 the deputies of AU Svoboda registered in the Verkhovna Rada 20 draft pieces of legislation (11 draft laws and 9 draft resolutions). In comparison, in February the deputies of this party produced 18 documents, in January - 14 new pieces of legislation and during the first month of the parliamentary work they did not compose any.
Almost a half of the enactments, which were registered by AU Svoboda (9 documents) were dealing with the ecological problem and use of natural resources. Such hyperactivity of the AU Svoboda in this sphere is explained by fact that Iryna Sekh is the Head of the Committee on Environmental Policy, Natural Resources and Elimination of Consequences of Chornobyl Accident. Less attention was paid to the problems of justice (4 documents), economy (3 documents), and social policy (2 documents). During March 2013 the deputies of AU Svoboda faction were not interested in foreign policy, defense and safety issues at all. The same tendency was noticed during the previous month.
Iryna Sekh became a leader of law-making activity of AU Svoboda in March 2013. She authored 10 pieces of legislation (9 drafts of resolutions and 1 daft law). Almost all documents initiated by the deputy are connected with environmental policy and use of natural resources. It is quite predictable if to take into account that she is the Head of the Verkhovna Rada profile committee. It is interesting that the commission on environment, natural resources and recreation, which was managed by I. Sekh in Lviv oblast council, was also the most active in the law-making. Less active in lawmaking were the deputy Ihor Miroshnychenko and Oleksandr Myrnyi (4 documents each). This time they have worked in pairs on the same draft laws.
Environmental policy
Although in terms of quantity the environmental issues and use of natural resources happened to constitute the major topic in the law making activity of Svoboda deputies, according to the content and consequences of these documents they are just a formality. On the one hand, these are the draft regulations on rejection of the bill or sending back for revision of a list of bills: On strengthening of state control over the use of privately owned natural resources, On Amendments to the Article 90 of the Water Code of Ukraine, On Amendments to the Laws of Ukraine On the topographic, geodesic, and cartographic activities and On Land Management, On amendments to the Forest Code of Ukraine and others. On the other hand, these are the draft resolutions on adopting a certain bills, such as On Amending the Law of Ukraine On hunting and shooting. It takes the initiators less time and efforts to prepare these documents than to draft a full fledge law, which aims at reforming of a certain policy or field. It is one of those moments when quantity does not mean quality.
Law enforcement system and justice, combating corruption
Deputies Iryna Farion and Yuri Mykhalchyshyn registered a bill aimed at protecting the Ukrainian language. Bill (# 2601 of 03/21/2013) envisages criminal liability for intentional acts against the state language in Ukraine. Specifically, the authors propose to punish with the restriction of liberty or imprisonment for up to three years for intentional acts committed for the purpose of ousting the official language from the information space, for narrowing the scope of its operation on the territory of Ukraine, for prohibition or restriction of the right to use Ukrainian language, for creating artificial conditions for the dominance of a foreign language. The same actions committed by a person who is a representative of the state or local governments, or repeated, or committed by an organized group, or using the media, Internet, film and photoproduction, public advertisement or in combination with the incitement of national or religious hatred or accompanied by violence or threats, - shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of three to five years.
In another bill (#2609 of 21.03.2013), initiated by the deputies from Svoboda, they propose to amend the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offences. However, in this case it tackles the responsibility for animal cruelty and violations of animal welfare. The bill proposes to introduce to the Criminal Code a term "cruel killing of animals" and classify it as a criminal offence. In contrast, they suggest add to the list of administrative offenses only violation of animal welfare and treatment, while removing from the Code of Administrative Offences the term "brutal treatment of animals." According to the authors of the bill (Ruslana Koshulynskoho, Iryna Farion, Yurii Mykhalchyshyn, Anatoli Vitiva and Andrii Tyahnybok), their proposed regulations will bring the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences in accordance with the provisions of the Law of Ukraine On protection of animals from cruelty.
Bill (#2657 of 29.03.2013) aims at banning possession and opening accounts in the foreign banks, as well as possession of property or corporate rights abroad by individuals authorized to perform the functions of the state or local government, individuals equated to them, their family members. According to its authors (Ihor Miroshnichenko and Oleksandr Myrnyi), the proposed amendments to the Law On Prevention and Combating of Corruption will reduce the number of facts of corruption, stop the so-called process of Ukrainian money leaking abroad and encourage people in public service to bona fide performance of their official duties. Despite the relevance of the existing problems, its settlement proposed by this bill is too simplistic and not feasible to implement. For example, it is unclear how proper control and accounting of foreign property and assets of individuals authorized to perform the functions of state/local government will be provided. And it is unclear how to settle the problem with those people, who at the time the law becomes operative, already have accounts in foreign banks and property or corporate rights abroad.
Another bill (#2342-1 of 03/05/2013) authored by Igor Miroshnichenko and Oleksandr Myrnyi contains controversial norms, which suggest to amend some legislative acts of Ukraine on Prevention and Combating Discrimination in Ukraine. The bill is an alternative to a similar bill submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers. In particular, MPs from Svoboda offer to legislate the concept of "Ukrainophobia" as a form of discrimination. "Ukrainophobia" refers to decisions, actions or inaction aimed at humiliating Ukraine as a state, Ukrainian nation, culture, language, history and traditions. Both the Main scientific-and-expert department and the Verkhovna Rada Committee (Committee for Human Rights, National Minorities and International Relations) critically assessed this legislative initiative. Indeed, the Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that there can be no privileges or restrictions based on ethnicity.
Economics, finances, and administration
A group of eight deputies of the AU Svoboda faction filed a bill (# 2622 of 03/22/2013), where they offer to determine on the level of the Budget Code of Ukraine the order and conditions of the provision of local budget subsidies from the state budget for the implementation of socio-economic development of certain areas and mechanism of the division between the administrative-territorial units. The problem is that the existing allocation of subsidies is arbitrary and does not take into account the population in the regions and indicators of their socio-economic development. Thus, some regions receive disproportionally more resources than others. Instead, it is proposed to carry out the distribution in proportion to the actual population of the administrative-territorial units according to data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine for the calendar year preceding the year of approval of the State Budget of Ukraine. At the same time, in distribution of subsidies, in case of special needs of individual regions, deviation of not more than 15% is permitted.
Ruslan Martsinkiv, the deputy from AU Svoboda, suggested (bill # 2456 of 03/05/2013) to legislate need to pay the full construction costs of share participation in infrastructure development of the settlement by the building owner - before the construction is put into service. According to the author, the law will contribute to the budgets of local governments.
Social problems and Standards
Deputies Igor Miroshnichenko and Oleksandr Myrnyi offer (bill #2620 of 03/22/2013) to set the amount of fees payable for the issue of permits for employers to employ foreign nationals and stateless persons on temporary basis. The fee is determined depending on the type of profession, ranging from two minimal salaries (for the permit issued for one month for employment of a person who performs low-skilled work) to forty minimum wages for employment of professional athletes. The authors believe that such costs on employment of foreigners, which range from about 2.500 to 50.000 USD, will encourage employers to hire Ukrainian citizens.
The bill submitted by the deputy from the AU Svoboda Bohdan Beniuk was the only draft law filed by this faction in the field of public administration. It aims at strengthening the control function of parliament. Document (#2465 of 03/05/2013) describes the need to provide an annual report to the Parliament members by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the work they have accomplished and the condition of the subordinate ministries and government agencies.
DRAFT LAWS OF THE UDAR PARTY
In March 2013 the UDAR faction registered 17 pieces of legislation (12 bills and five draft resolutions). This is the highest rate of the first few months of legislative work of the deputies from the UDAR. In January they registered in the Verkhovna Rada 16 laws, in December 2012 and in February - 10 documents each month. Most of them relate to the area of justice and the fight against corruption (8 documents), half of them are devoted to economic issues (4 documents) and 3 documents are related to social issues and standards. Issues of foreign policy, defense and security - as in the previous month – were not in the scope of legislative attention of the deputies from the UDRA faction. Since the times when the Verkhovna Rada VII convocation started its work the UDAR faction continues to have absolutely no interest in humanitarian issues. In March Valery Karpuntsov, Ruslan Solvar, and Vitaly Chuhunnikov became the leaders of legislative activity of the UDAR faction. Each of them submitted 3 legislative acts.
Law enforcement and justice
Valentin Nalyvaychenko registered his own bill (#24732 of 03/05/2013), in which he suggests to include trusted and authorized persons to the list of subjects and participants of the electoral process, obstruction of activities of which impede criminal liability. He believes that the implementation of these changes will help to improve the practice of parliamentary elections in Ukraine and ensure the smooth operation of these individuals during the election process.
Moreover, the UDAR fraction continues to work on the fight against corruption. Thus, Victor Chumak as the chairman of the profile Committee introduced two draft resolutions of the Verkhovna Rada (#2218 / P and # 2219 / R of 03/20/2013) regarding the state anti-corruption policy and involve adopting a draft Law of Ukraine On the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (registration # 2218) and the Law of Ukraine On anti-corruption inspection officials at all levels (registration # 2219) and after the revision in the Committee to introduce the bills to the Parliament in the second reading.
Economics, finances, and administration
To ensure the right of citizens to receive quality housing services, the UDAR faction proposes to amend the Law on Housing and Communal Services in the part on contracting. According to Ruslan Solvar, the MP and author of the project, many housing offices under various pretexts avoid to sign contracts with the consumers, according to which a monthly fee is charged for the service. As a result, residents pay bills, but are unable to get information about the number and quality of housing and communal services, they are also unable to summon and control the quality of these services, and most importantly - to challenge the fact of failure or poor quality of service. To avoid this, the bill proposes to provide a clear regulation - "executor has no right to give the consumer a bill for housing services until the contract is signed."
In March, the authors from the UDAR faction (Oksana Prodan, Natalia Agafonova, Olha Belkova, Dubnevych Yaroslav, Yaroslav Ginka, Vitalii Chuhunnikov) also tried to defend the rights of private entrepreneurs. As stated in the explanatory memorandum to the draft Law on amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine (on the just responsibility of taxpayers) (#2571 of 03/19/2013). According to the document, the taxpayers will be attracted to responsibility only in case of underpayment to the budget. We remind that in Ukraine there are rules according to which the taxpayer is liable even if he paid all his obligations to the budget on time, but made a mistake in reporting.
Politics and Governance
As a reaction to deprivation of Serhii Vlasenko of his parliamentary mandate, Mykola Palamarchuk from the UDAR faction registered a bill (# 2536 of 03/14/2013), which amends the laws governing the dissolution of the People's Deputy of Ukraine.
The lawmakers are seriously concerned about the fact that now petitions to the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine files the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine without a decision made by a majority of the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Therefore, according to his bill, depriving the deputy of his the mandate due to its incompatibility with other activities should be done by voting in the Parliament. First, the Committee, whose jurisdiction includes the issue of parliamentary ethics, considers the relevant materials and submits the conclusion to the Parliament. Based on this conclusion the Verkhovna Rada makes a decision on filing a court appeal to establish that the deputy's mandate is incompatible with other activities and on early deprivation of mandate or on the refusal to go to the court. Then the head of parliament days apply to the court within three, and if the decision of the Parliament is to refuse to appeal to the court, returns the materials to the parliamentary committee deputies’ ethics.
According to this procedure, a decision on the withdrawal of the mandate is made only by the Verkhovna Rada and the court is only authorized to establish the legal fact, when the people’s deputy fails to comply with the requirements of incompatibility.
NON-FACTION BILLS
In March 2013, non-faction deputies registered 32 bills. In comparison with December 2012 - February 2013, they constitute the highest number of bills registered by this category of parliamentarians. As in previous months, social component (14 projects) is the most popular among the initiatives of the non-faction deputies. The second priority is economic sphere (9 bills). The interest of non-faction deputies in the issues of law enforcement and justice significantly increased (6 projects). But in March, these deputies hardly tackled humanitarian issues, which were of high popularity in previous periods.
Considerable number of the bills is not elaborated and looks not feasible, especially the introduction of additional social guarantees. At the same time, there has been a positive trend towards convergence of approaches to solving similar problems used by the deputies. It makes us think positively about the possibility of joining efforts of the non-faction deputies.
Social problems and Standards
Social problems are most urgent problem for the non-faction deputies. In March 2013, 14 such bills were registered. This indicates that the deputies of the single-mandate constituencies keep contact with their voters and respond to their needs. At the same time, an important task is to ensure the feasibility of these initiatives.
Non-faction deputies pay much attention to the social development of rural areas and appropriate protection of their inhabitants. It is a lawmaking trend not only this month, but in previous periods. In particular, Viktor Baloha offers to allow university graduates who work in rural areas to defer from the army. According to the deputy, this innovation will generate additional incentives for the development of the Ukrainian village.
At the same time, to provide social security for the inhabitants of rural areas Oleh Lyashko proposes to abolish state registration, issue of licenses and technical inspection of compact agricultural vehicle.
MPs Stepan Labazyuk and Stepan Ivakhiv proposed a bill that regulates retirement problem of the private farmers. It should be noted that in February non-faction deputies registered a similar bill.
Non-faction deputies repeatedly emphasize attention on the need of reallocation of budget spending on social needs of the citizens. Oleh Lyashko initiates the redistribution of funds from the State Budget of Ukraine, which are spent at the moment on the maintenance of state houses, on social problems. According to the deputy, every year the State Administration receives 50 million UAH for maintenance of state houses in such complexes as "Concha-Zaspa" and "Pushcha-Vodytsia."
Non-faction deputies actively work on the settlement of pension provision, social security of Chernobyl liquidators, youth and other citizens. In particular, Vitalii Chudnovskyi initiates the establishment of social guarantees for the families of the deceased breadwinner, who has a status of Chernobyl liquidator. This bill is based on the fact that these people should be provided with the social guarantees regardless of the cause of the death. Serhii Mishchenko prepared a draft law that established the dependence of the minimum scholarship for students and gifted students on the subsistence minimum.
Valery Moshenskyi proposes to increase the amount of financial assistance at retirement age from ten to twelve monthly pensions. For the one full year of experience after the retirement age, which is more than 25 years for men and 20 years for women, one monthly pension can be added. At the same time, Oleh Lyashko introduced a bill regarding exemption of pensioners from paying the cost of processing driver's license of the new design.
Bills introduced by the non-faction deputies can be considered as a certain indicator of the existing problems in social sphere. Despite the declarative provisions of some projects, they should have adequately attention of the government agencies.
Economics, finances, and administration
In March 2013 the non-faction parliamentarians registered 9 bills related to the economic issues. Some of these documents, while proposing changes to the regulation of economic activity, have implications on social sphere. In particular, Oleh Lyashko suggests to reduce the size of tax revenues from bank deposits of individuals from 5 to 1%. The MP believes that his initiative will expand the bank customer base and increase confidence in the banking system of Ukraine.
Sergii Mishchenko has registered a bill on amendments to the Law of Ukraine on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2013, which provides the local budgets with the subsidies to repay losses caused by the energy suppliers. The author notes that these entities suffer from the financial loss, because they provide subsidies to the utilities service companies, supply citizens with cold and hot water, etc.. In February of non-faction deputies offered to settle the issue of financial loss of transport carriers that provide services to the people entitled to discounts.
Non-faction deputies continue to develop projects for the regulation of narrow areas. For example, Yurii Derevyanko drafted the amendments to the Civil Code, which are related to establishing the critical sums which can be paid in cash. According to the MPs, the authorities of the parliament to resolve this problem were unduly delegated to the National Bank of Ukraine. It is proposed to fix the amount of cash payments only on legislative level. In another bill Derevyanko suggests to double the amounts of compensation to air passengers in case of flight cancellation. It is also proposed to add the provisions governing the urgency and payment of such compensation to the Air Code.
Vitaly Chudnovsky proposes to introduce in Bila Tserkva City of Kiev oblast a special investment regime. This mode can be implemented for a period of 30 years, and the list of investment projects will be adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. It should be noted that Bila Tserkva pertains to the constituency #90, where Chudnovskyi was elected.
Andrii Tabalov introduced a draft law on value added taxes on supply of cereals and industrial crops. The current provisions of the Tax Code provide exemption from VAT on certain transactions of supply of crops. Author proposes to expand the scope of this norm.
Law enforcement and justice
While in February non-faction deputies registered 3 projects in this sphere, now they produced already 6 bills. The most popular project was prepared by Oleh Liaashko. It dealt with the release of political prisoners in Ukraine. In justification of this draft law the deputy refers to the resolution of the European Parliament On the situation in Ukraine. The bill, which is less than two pages, contains two basic norms: decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on release of Yulia Tymoshenko and Yurii Lutsenko and commitment of the Government to immediately implement this decision. April 2, 2013 the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted for including this bill on the agenda of the second session of Parliament.
Serhii Mishchenko proposes to shorten the list of grounds allowing the police to stop the vehicles. The project gives the police the right to stop a vehicle only if a driver violated the traffic rules, or there is information about the involvement of the car in a criminal case, the need to involve the driver and passengers as witnesses of the accident. Mishchenko also prepared a draft resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to establish Temporary commission on investigation of the facts of artificial bankruptcy of JSC "Bank Tavrika ." In the explanatory note it is said that the retail deposits worth 400 million UAH were not returned to the owners.
Yurii Derevyanko’s bill obliges close relatives of the officials to declare assets, income, expenses and financial obligations on the annual basis. In turn, state officials will be required to specify the information about these individuals in their declarations. List of people belonging to the category of relatives is broad enough: spouses, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, etc.. Also, the deputy intends to increase fines for violations of financial control in twenty times.
INTER-FACTIONAL BILLS
Inter-factional are those bills that were jointly prepared and registered by the representatives of various factions. Analysis of the inter-factional legislative initiatives enables us to assess the probability of parliamentary compromise on political or specific and sectoral issues.
In March 2013 there were 102 bills authored by the members of different factions. 74 or 75% of these bills were related to the declaration of early local elections or decisions on staff reshuffle in the judicial system.
Resonance of the inter-factional bills significantly decreased compared with December 2012 - February 2013. This is due to the fact that three opposition factions have already filed joint bills. Inter-factional bills become more and more narrow in their specialization and lose their political relevance. Nevertheless, the interest in the development of projects related to combating corruption and increasing transparency of government shown by the members of different factions during the last months continues to exist.
Economics, finances, and administration
In March 2013 7 economic-related draft laws were registered in the Verkhovna Rada.
Ksenia Liapina (AUU Batkivshchyna) and Iryna Horina (PR) have jointly developed a bill on facilitation of the cessation of business activity run by private individuals. MPs propose to introduce in the field the principle of applications, which will exclude the issue of certificates or permits, special inspections, etc. It should be noted that Horina and Liapina already have significant experience in the preparation of joint bills.
Member of the Party of Regions Mykhailo Opanashchenko and non-faction deputy Ihor Rybakov offer to set a minimum annual rent for the use of land for agricultural purposes on the legislative level. It is proposed to establish an annual rental fee in the amount of 5-7% of the land cost.
Vitalii Nemilostivyi (OU Batkivshchyna) and David Zhvania (PR) proposed amendments to the Law of Ukraine on the State program of high technology development. It is planned to increase the time needed to implement the respective program and its funding.
Andrii Ponomariov (PR) and Serhii Hordienko (CPU) registered a draft law to increase budget revenues of the territories, where the pilot projects on the reform the health care system are implemented. In particular, it is proposed to redirect a fee for the use of subsoil for mining to the oblast budget (25%) and to budgets of raions and cities of regional importance (25%). Now these revenues are shared only between the State Budget of Ukraine and the oblast budget.
Social problems and social protection
In this area there were registered 5 draft laws.
A member of the Party of Regions Mykhailo Opanashchenko and un-faction deputies Ihor Rybakov initiate special obligatory norms of employment of the rural population for the institutions, organizations and private individuals, who use the lands of agricultural designation.
Tetiana Bakhteyeva, Volodymyr Dudka (PR), Iryna Spirina (CPU), Tetiana Donets (OU Batkivshchyna) co-authored a draft law on the prevention and treatment of rare diseases. At the same time, representatives of all five factions introduced a draft Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine On parliamentary hearings, which will take place on June 5, 2013 on the following topic: “Current situations, way and prospects of reform of the health care system in Ukraine.”
Humanitarian issues
This month three bills were registered. Two of them solve humanitarian problems of society through the prism of the functioning of the media.
Mykola Kniazhytsky, Mykola Tomenko, Olena Kondratiuk (AUU Batkivshchyna), Rustam Raupov (UDAR), Igor Miroshnychenko (Svoboda) offer to include the questions about the formation of community councils of the National Television and National Radio Company to the competence of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of expression and information. It is expected that the community councils will be empowered to make conclusions on the balance of information in their programs. One of the bill’s provisions is to oblige the National Television and National Radio Company to provide the presence of the representatives of parliamentary factions in live every day from 7 to 10 p.m. At the same time, Mykola Tomenko, Stepan Kurpil (AUU Batkivshchyna), Mykola Bahraiev (PR), Rustam Raupov (UDAR), Ihor Miroshnychenko registered together the Law on reforming the print media. The bill establishes new rules of interaction between government bodies and print media founded by them.
Vyacheslav Kyrylenko (OU Batkivshchyna), Maria Matios (UDAR), Bohdan Benyuk (Svoboda) and non-faction deputy Oles Donii registered the project on state examination of the circumstances under which the archaeological objects appeared in non-state ownership.
Politics and public administration
Only three documents out of 65 submitted projects on this issue are not related to the declaration of early local elections. Traditionally, the representatives of the opposition took care of the parliamentary problems and evaluation of the Parliamentary elections 2012.
The leaders of the AUU Batkivshchyna faction (Arsenii Yatsenyuk), UDAR (Vitalii Klytchko), Svoboda (Oleg Tyagnybok) introduced the draft resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on establishment of the Temporary committee on investigation of "anti-constitutional revision" of the parliamentary election results in 2012. Leaders and other opposition MPs also registered a draft resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine On responsibility of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The project envisages adoption of a resolution of no confidence in the Government.
Law enforcement and justice
Within this field the deputies proposed 15 projects, 13 of which were related to the decisions on staff reshuffle in the judicial system. Representatives of the opposition groups and a member of the Party of Regions submitted a project on combating corruption. Vitalii Yarema (AUU Batkivshchyna), Victor Chumak (UDAR), Mykola Dzhyrha (PR), Oleg Osukhovskyi (Svoboda), unaffiliated MP Yurii Derevyanko offer to authorize the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the competences of which include anti-corruption measures, to check all the bills for their compliance with the demands of anti-corruption laws. This project also includes other anti-corruption measures.
Lesia Orobets Andrii Kozhemyakin (AUU Batkivshchyna), Victor Chumak (UDAR), Andrii Mishchenko (Svoboda) propose legislative measures to humanize penalties for committing criminal offenses in the area of privacy. According to the deputies, the bill was designed to implement the recommendations of the Council of Europe.
Environment and use of natural resources
Deputies of various fractions prepared three draft laws in the field of environment and use of natural resources.
Mykola Tomenko (AUU Batkivshchyna), Andrii Tyahnybok (AU Svoboda), Oleksandr Golub (CPU), Lidia Kotelyak, Valerii Holovko (AUU Batkivshchyna), Yevhen Balytskyi (PR), Pavlo Rozenko (UDAR) proposed amendments to some laws of Ukraine regarding the protection of fauna and flora. At the same time, deputy from AUU Batkivshchyna Lidia Kotelyak, member of the Party of Regions faction Yevhen Balytskyi and other representatives of these factions have prepared draft Law of Ukraine On green spaces in cities and other settlements of Ukraine. The draft stipulates that all green spaces, regardless of the ownership of land, will be under protection.
Representatives of the three opposition factions (Oleksandr Brygynets (AUU Batkivshchyna), Victor Chumak (UDAR), Andrii Illienko (Svoboda) and others) insist in their bill on setting 7-year moratorium on the construction of facilities in green beautification areas of Kyiv City.
Foreign Policy
Only one bill was registered on the issue of foreign policy.
Members of three opposition factions (Valentyn Nalyvaichenko (UDAR), Oleksandr Shevchenko (AU Svoboda), Volodymyr Ariev (AUU Batkivshchyna) and a member of the Party of Regions faction Vitalii Kalyuzhnyi drafted the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in which Ukrainian parliament expresses its position on the Ukraine-EU visa facilitation agreement. We remind that on 22 of March this Agreement has been ratified by the Verkhovna Rada.
Announcement of holidays and commemorative dates
Vyacheslav Kyrylenko (AUU Batkivshchyna) and Leontii Martyniuk (AU Svoboda) introduced three draft parliamentary resolutions On celebration of the memorable dates" (the 70th Anniversary of H.H. Verovka National Choir, the 150th Birth anniversary of Olga Kobylianska, the 100th anniversary of the P.I. Chaikovskyi National Music Academy).