The meeting was attended by deputy heads of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat M.Shevchuk, M. Tepliuk, O.Martynenko, V.Bondarenko and representatives of the European Parliament.
At the beginning of the event former chairman of the European Parliament P. Cox marked out good work of the Verkhovna Rada over the recommendations concerning reforming the Parliament.
Andrej Plenkovic, European Parliament lead member on the parliamentary support and capacity-building programme for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Chairman of the EP Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, stressed that the European Parliament is ready to continue supporting Ukraine in the implementation of reforms, including of the Verkhovna Rada.
"As of today we are capable of carrying out activities in the light of the roadmap elaborated with our joint efforts in order for the Verkhovna Rada to become a strong institution where high-level professionals work, qualified experts as the creation of legislation is a key task. The Parliament should employ not only legal specialists, but also translators, journalists, etc. for the implementation of European directives that have been elaborated for over 65 years. The task of the Ukrainian parliament is the harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with the EU law," he said.
First Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat V.Slyshynskyi said that from now on the Ukrainian Parliament has an opportunity to combine its activity with the activity of the new government in order to adopt necessary laws. "The new speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Andrii Parubii has demonstrated his desire to continue reforming the Verkhovna Rada. Now we have a good relationship between the Parliament and the Government. But we are interested in effective work. Regardless of the personalities," V.Slyshynskyi said. In his opinion, the work of government committees would resume to speed up the reform. “From May 1, comes into force the Law "On State Service." And we think that its implementation can affect the performance of the state service. We have to postpone this Law in order to finalize it and approve a series of necessary by-laws to let the state service become popular," the spokesman said.
According to V. Slyshynskyi, there is a need for training groups of employees of the Ukrainian Parliament in the European Parliament in the corresponding areas. Andrej Plenkovic agreed with this proposal and noted that in late May the first groups would be able to go to study.
"Already from the next week we will start working on the recommendations. We will approve by-laws, which will come into force simultaneously with the Law to make civil servants be interested in their work," the spokesman said.
Mykhailo Tepliuk, the head of the Central Judicial Office of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat stressed that the list of measures defined by the recommendations of the European Parliament, had been worked out quite effectively. The speaker focused on the issue of submitting legislative initiative. "There emerge a lot of draft laws requiring additional funding, which is a burden for the state budget. Such draft laws should be considered only in case of positive conclusions of the parliamentary committees, and taking into account the principles of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and expertise concerning the absence of corruptiogenic factors. It is necessary to bring the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine into line with the Constitution of Ukraine as this will contribute to good performance of the Ukrainian Parliament. There is a desire of the leaders of parliamentary factions to consolidate actions, so we hope for the success of reforming the Verkhovna Rada," said the spokesman. "I hope that the system of executive power will return to the problem of our legislation’s harmonization with the EU law," M.Tepliuk summarized.
At the end of the meeting, P.Cox and V.Slyshynskyi stressed that the joint work on the reform of the Verkhovna Rada continues, and they are confident of its success and agreed to coordinate common actions and carry out consultations.