The working meeting entitled "Dialogues dedicated to parliamentary ethics matters" has taken place in the Ukrainian Parliament. The event took place within the framework of a project of the Legislative Initiatives Laboratory aimed at improvement of the parliamentary process through assistance to the international dialogue and promotion of ethic standards implemented with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), USAID/Rada Program, and the Netherlands institute for multiparty democracy.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Andrii Parubii noted that the parliamentary experience accumulated so far indicates that the issues of ethics are very important.
People's deputy Yehor Sobolev offered to provide the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure and Support to Work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with additional expert authority. "The conclusions of the Committee should not contain elements of a conflict of interests, but have to be independent," the speaker said. The parliamentarian called for adoption of respective law and establishment of an independent commission and ensure its independence. He also offered to resume the practice of making the names of top absentee deputies public.
Svitlana Zalishchuk reminded that one of the first draft laws registered at the Verkhovna Rada in 2014 touched counteraction to impersonal voting, publishing data on the sources of funding of the Ukrainian Parliament, etc. She noted that excessive fragmentation of current Parliament does not let adoption of respective draft laws.
Envoy of the President of Ukraine to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Artur Herasymov noted that the issue of the parliamentary ethics does not only concern the people's deputies, but everything happening in the walls of the Ukrainian Parliament. He said that a key point should be the honesty of the dialogue.
People's deputy Svitlana Voitsekhovska said the issue of ethics cannot be separated from the issue of gender equality. The parliamentarian noted she had drafted amendments to the Regulations of the Ukrainian Parliament in terms of the gender equality.
