Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, calls for revising the ratification
proceedings and making an inventory of the international legal base of Ukraine.
Addressing the participants of the Tenth Council of the Leaders of the Foreign Diplomatic Institutions of Ukraine on Tuesday, V.Lytvyn stated that the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs had been scrutinizing 9 bills on ratification of the international agreements. For the current convocation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Committee has brought forward 206 bills and draft resolutions on foreign policy and international affairs, ratification of international agreements on foreign economic activity, migration and other matters.
According to the Head of the Parliament, 1115 international legal documents, including 7 fundamental laws with the newly-adopted Law "On the Fundamentals of the Domestic and Foreign Policy", 994 laws on ratification, 97 laws on joining the conventions and other multilateral international legal tools have been adopted 1991 through December 2010.
Still. V.Lytvyn stated, "Organization of the ratification proceedings provokes serious concerns and criticism on part of the subject committees of The Verkhovna Rada,
leaders of the Parliament and numerous People´s Deputies." The Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine addressed the Government
with a request to analyze and present the data on the international agreements
of Ukraine that were signed but not ratified.
"It is urgent to revise the international legal base of Ukraine," V.Lytvyn stated. Several international agreements concluded in 1990´s have not come into force, having already lost their topicality.
The Head of the Parliament stated that the Committee on Foreign Affairs had often received the agreements that had been signed many years ago. It takes a long time to finalize the domestic procedures to ratify the agreements. V.Lytvyn cited the figures of the Cabinet of Ministers, proving that these procedures have not been finalized in case of 22 bilateral international agreements and 17 multilateral international acts. "Almost half of the documents from this list have been signed 5-15 years ago, and have not been ratified yet. The list also includes two amazing "veterans" the Agreement signed in 1950 and the Protocol to it dating back to 1976. However, 3-4 years usually pass between the signing of the document and its ratification," V.Lytvyn stated.