Commenting on adoption of the bill "On State Guarantees of Judgement Execution" (Reg. No. 9127), Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, stated that this bill envisages manual control of social privileges. "The Verkhovna Rada has almost no power to determine social privileges and vulnerable categories, starting from the war veterans", he admitted.
The second threat of the bill, according to the Deputy Chairman, is expectable manipulation of public funds during elections.
Discussing the procedure of adoption, M. Tomenko characterized the attempt to adopt the law which concerns 10 million citizens in one voting as unprecedented. He reminded that only owing to the protests of the parliamentary opposition, the bill was adopted in the first reading and not in entirety.
However, the Deputy Chairman emphasized that as the bill is being rapidly finalized for the second reading, its scrutiny will become a test for Ukrainian trade unions: whether they will manage to assert their power instead of becoming a mere subdivision of authorities. "If the trade unions have nothing against the bill, it will prove again the lack of influential trade unions in Ukraine which could protect the interests of social groups", M. Tomenko stressed.