There were events with the participation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine leadership.

Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andrii Parubii addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe with a request to assist in bringing Nadiya Savchenko back to Ukraine.

The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ordered to create a working group on the elaboration of the legal framework for the amber extraction regulation.

At a news briefing Andrii Parubii stressed that "the cooperation of the Ukrainian Parliament with the Cabinet of Ministers is the most important basis for legislative activity."

Parubii reminded of the need for rapid decision-making, and implementation of reforms in different fields.

Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andrii Parubii at a meeting of the National Reforms Council emphasized that is it necessary to understand how to inform the public about the changes and reforms. He highly evaluated the work and huge potential of the Ukrainian Parliament in this direction.

On Tuesday Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oksana Syroyid took part in the presentation of the report "Russian war crimes in Eastern Ukraine," which is the result of an investigation conducted by a group of volunteers chaired by Polish Sejm Member Malgorzata Gosiewska.

The report shows the war crimes committed in the East and South of Ukraine by servicemen and officials of the Russian Federation, the militants from among Russia-backed separatists.

Ukrainian part of the European Union-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee held its meeting.

In the framework of preparation for the visit to Brussels, MPs listened to the information of government officials on topical issues on the agenda of EU-Ukraine relations, including the completion of the Association Agreement ratification, the prospects for visa-free travel, the progress of the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

Parliamentary Committees held regular sittings, hearings, meetings, and round tables.

Members of the Committee on Budget met with representatives of the Technical Mission of the International Monetary Fund’s Fiscal Affairs Department.

During the meeting they discussed the matter of increasing the efficiency of selection of public investment projects, for the elaboration and implementation of which the law on the state budget envisages the corresponding funds, and distributing the State Regional Development Fund’s resources, and also the issue of productiveness of the use of state budget expenditures for these purposes.

At a joint initiative of the Verkhona Rada Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Institute of International Relations of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, held was a presentation of the report entitled "Russian war crimes in Eastern Ukraine in 2014."

Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Hanna Hopko took part in the Bratislava Global Security Forum, held in the capital of Slovakia on April 15-17.

Chairperson of the Committee took part in numerous discussions and meetings with Western politicians and diplomats.

Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Hanna Hopko met with Wendy Hinton, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of New Zealand in Ukraine with concurrent accreditation.

Members of the Committee for European Integration at their meeting considered a number of draft laws on their compliance with the European Union law, Ukraine's commitments under the Council of Europe and the Association Agreement between Ukraine on the one part and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States on the other part.

The Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction and the Committee on Financial Policy and Banking held a joint meeting to discuss corruption risks in the banking sector of Ukraine and the implementation of anti-corruption measures at the Deposit Guarantee Fund.

The Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement considered and decided to recommend that the Parliament adopt as a basis and in principle draft law "On amendments to Article 40 of the Law of Ukraine “On Prosecution" concerning the requirements to candidates for the post of Prosecutor General of Ukraine."

Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations Hryhorii Nemyria met with international experts in the issues of internal migrants.

The Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy recommends that the Ukrainian Parliament adopt as a basis and in principle the draft law, which will facilitate entering the market by new enterprises with small volumes of terroir wines (wines of certain territory) production, fruit wines and unique honey drinks from own (not purchased) materials.

The Committee on Budget considered the issues of preparation under the simplified procedure for consideration in the second reading of the draft law on amendments to the Law "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2016."

The Committee on Social Policy, Employment and Pension Provision hosted a meeting of people's deputies with representatives of the International Labour Organisation.

The sides discussed a number of ILO recommendations to the draft Labour Code, which was expected to be presented at an extended working meeting.

International Labour Organisation’s technical comments to the draft Labour Code of Ukraine were presented at the working meeting of the Committee on Social Policy, Employment and Pension Provision members with representatives of the ILO.

The Committee on Social Policy, Employment and Pension Provision approved Recommendations of the workshop entitled "Updating living wage as a mechanism of improving citizens’ lives."

Draft Strategy of Ukraine's banking system development was presented at a round table in the Committee on Financial Policy and Banking.

The Draft Strategy was elaborated at the initiative of the special working group consisting of professional experts in the field of monetary, foreign exchange and banking regulation, representatives of NGOs, scientific, expert and banking communities to commence broad national consultations for its further perfecting.

The Committee on Financial Policy and Banking set up an expert group to finalize the Strategy of the banking system development.

At its regular meeting the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy considered violations of the rights of Crimean journalists.

The Committee unanimously approved a decision to address the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic with an offer to send an official delegation of the OSCE to Crimea with the participation of Ukraine’s representatives to study the situation with the freedom of mass media and discuss the results at an OSCE meeting.

The Committee on Family Matters, Youth Policy, Sports and Tourism held a Committee hearing entitled "Child support obligations: problems and solutions."

The situation concerning returning to state ownership of the immovable property of State Enterprise "Radio Transmitting Center” was discussed during the field meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Special Control Commission for Privatization in Brovary.

The Citizens' Applications Office of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat disclosed that in January - March 2016 the Parliament received 20,400 proposals, applications and complaints of citizens, which is 1,500 less than in the same period of last year.

According to statistics, every second appeal concerned exactly the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as the only body of legislative power in the country.

Other events were also held during the week.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine hosted a round table entitled "Improvement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine functioning: European standards and ways to ensure public confidence in the Ukrainian parliament."

When summarizing the round table, they expressed the main idea concerning the elaboration of recommendations of the round table as to the parliamentary reform strategy, and organization of professional parliamentary work.

Regular workshop on drafting the legislation for local self-government officials was held at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It was held by the Parliamentary Office of local self-government together with the Association of Ukrainian Cities in the framework of the PULSE project, implemented with the support of USAID. Village council heads and secretaries, representatives of unified territorial communities, heads and specialists of local councils in charge of education took part in the workshop.

In the Verkhovna Rada presented was an analytical report entitled "Recommendations for improving the sites of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committees."

The discussion on the report, initiated by the Information Office of the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat and developed by the Centre of Business Technologies Development in the framework of projects of Intel educational portal with the support of the World Bank in Ukraine, was attended by heads and representatives of secretariats of the parliamentary committees.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs opened an exhibition of Canadian artist of Ukrainian origin, Taras Polatajko.