FINAL PLENARY MEETING OF THE SECOND SESSION OF THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE OF THE SIXTH CONVOCATION WAS HELD ON FRIDAY, 11 JULY
Arseniy Yatseniuk, Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, opened the morning meeting. He stated that the Committee on Budget recommended that the Parliament adopted the Bill on Amendments to the Law "On the State Budget of Ukraine for Year 2008, and several other Legislative Acts of Ukraine" as a basis.
The Chairman also announced that V.Yushchenko, President of Ukraine, submitted an alternative Bill to The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
A.Yatseniuk announced a recess in the plenary meeting in order to hold the meeting of the leaders of the parliamentary factions.
After the recess, the Chairman announced the resolutions adopted at the meeting. Thus, Yu.Tymoshenko, Prime-Minister of Ukraine, and leaders of the Factions members of the Coalition, gave consent to consider the Draft Resolution on Non-Confidence to the Government first thing. Then the Bill on Amendments to the Law "On the State Budget of Ukraine for Year 2008, and several other Legislative Acts of Ukraine" should be considered. Finally, the People´s Deputies should consider the Draft Schedule of holding the Third Session.
The Chairman announced the recess. After the recess, Arseniy Yatseniuk announced that Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime-Minister of Ukraine, and members of the Cabinet of Ministers attended the sitting.
A.Yatseniuk announced the agenda of the sitting. He gave floor to the leaders of the Deputy Factions who commented on the situation at the Parliament, and introduced motions concerning further work.
Then the Chairman read out deputies´ inquiries.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted the Resolution on the Schedule of holding the Third Session of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the Sixth Convocation. The Resolution envisages that plenary meetings of the Third Session will start on 2 September 2008, and conclude on 16 January 2009. The Resolution envisages 10 weeks for plenary work, 6 weeks for work at the Commitees, factions and Panels, 4 weeks for work with the electors, and 10 Question-Hours to the Government to be held at The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Then the People´s Deputies resolved to continue the plenary meeting until all the issues included into the agenda are considered.
Mykola Azarov, People´s Deputy of Ukraine, presented the Draft Resolution on Responsibility of the Cabinet of Ministers. He stated that activity of the Government of Yulia Tymoshenko resulted in a tense economical situation. He believes that "positive assessments of the investment association that predicted a role of an East European "tiger" of Ukraine in 2004, are left in the past. Moreover, risk index of investments into the Ukrainian economy reached its historical upper limit".
"Showings of industry, agriculture and construction attest that the pace of economic development slows down. Year-to-date, market free index decreased by a third, which means that capitalization of all Ukrainian companies and entire economy decreased by a third", - stated M.Azarov. "Actually, the situation is rather tense", - he added.
M.Azarov stated that "he failed to understand the macroeconomic indexes to be used by the country, as define the exchange rate and the rate of inflation".
The reporter regards "the trade that developed due to the unprecedented uneven rise of import as the reason of the increase of the Gross Domestic Product".
M.Azarov also stated that every seventh budget program fails to be funded, loan support of the domestic producers deteriorated, simulated strengthening of Hryvnia negative affected commodity producers.
Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime-Minister of Ukraine, delivered a speech. She regarded the voting for non-confidence to her Government as an opportunity to check her reliance on the majority. "No government is able to work, if it is on the verge of resignation at the rate of 225 votes and fails to be supported by the majority. Therefore, it is necessary to form a new coalition, and elect new leaders of the country from the government, to the chairman of The Verkhovna Rada", - stated the Prime-Minister.
Yu.Tymoshenko reported on the Government´s work for the 6 months.
Leaders and representatives of the Deputy Factions took part in the discussion.
The Draft Resolution on Responsibility of the Cabinet of Ministers was not adopted due to the results of the voting. 174 People´s Deputies voted affirmatively.
The Chairman announced a recess. After the recess, Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime-Minister of Ukraine, presented the Bill on Amendments to the Law "On the State Budget of Ukraine for Year 2008, and several other Legislative Acts of Ukraine". Thus, due to the results of work in the first half-year, the Government proposes to increase the State Budget revenue by 32,2 billion UAH. Yu.Tymoshenko commented on three basic sources of increase of revenue: economic rise, increase of revenue of the local budgets, and decrease of the shadow economy sector due to the successful operation "Smuggling Stop!".
According to Yu.Tymoshenko, the Government took all the motions of the President of Ukraine into account, whilst drafting the Bill.
The Prime-Minister dwelled upon certain peculiarities of the Bill, and answered the questions of the People´s Deputies.
Andriy Honcharuk, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine, presented the alternative Bill submitted by the President of Ukraine. He stated that most remarks and motions of the President were included into the government Bill. However, the differences still exist. The reporter dwelled on the motions of the President that failed to be taken into account by the Government. He appealed to the People´s Deputies with a request to uphold the motions of the President of Ukraine.
Mykola Derkach, Chairman of the Committee on Budget, presented a supplementary report. He dwelled upon the Committee´s work over the government Bill. M.Derkach deems necessary to adopt the Bill, though it was subjected to severe criticism.
According to M.Derkach, the Committee on Budget recommended that the Parliament adopted the government Bill as a basis and in its entirety, taking into account the amendments contained in the Draft Resolution on adoption of the Bill.
Representatives of the Factions and the People´s Deputies discussed the Bill and introduced their remarks and motions to it. They underscored the necessity of introducing amendments to the State Budget, and commented on insufficiency of funds allocated for implementation of certain programs. The reporters introduced specific motions.
Both Bills were rejected due to the results of the voting.
Representatives of the Factions expressed their opinions concerning further activities.
A.Yatseniuk proposed to hold the meeting of the Factions´ leaders to reconcile all the motions so that a single Bill could be put to the vote.
The Chairman announced a recess. After the recess, A.Yatseniuk informed the People´s Deputies about the results of the sitting, and the submitted motions.
A.Yatseniuk put to the vote the Resolution on referral of both Bills to the repeated First Reading.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted the Resolution by 250 votes.
At the end of the meeting, Arseniy Yatseniuk, Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, summarized the work of the Parliament during the Second Session, and declared the Session closed.