Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Koshulynskyi met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA to Ukraine John Tefft on February 20, 2013.
During the meeting the Parties exchanged work experience of legislative bodies of their countries and expressed for the necessity to deepen them.
Speaking on the situation in Ukraine and answering questions of Mr. Ambassador in regard to the prospects of finding a compromise to unblock the work of the Parliament, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine informed that the opposition and pro-government factions work on the joint document that would enable Parliament to start its work.
Thereat, R.Koshulynskyi noted that situation in the Ukrainian Parliament could be named “change of parliamentary culture in Ukraine”. “The most difficult is to break a habit that has developed during the previous cadencies. Thus, fulfillment of the tasks posed by the society before the new Parliament, in particular, the process of introduction of personal voting and personal responsibility as well as transition to normal and civilized relations, is necessary,” he stressed.
Moreover, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada reminded Mr. Ambassador that “relations between the majority and minority in the Verkhovna Rada are not legislatively settled”. “We have neither prescribed nor legalized tradition of relationships. We are creating it today,” he noted.
Ruslan Koshulynskyi informed that “currently, we have two documents that should be jointly adopted both by the opposition and by the majority: amendments to the Law on the Rules of Procedure, stipulating mechanisms of control and sanctions for non-personal voting and statement on Euro-integrational aspirations of the Ukrainian Parliament”.
In his turn, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA said that he welcomes Ukraine’s aspirations to join the community of democratic European countries, saying that adoption of respective documents would be a strong signal for European countries. John Tefft stressed also that “Ukraine has enormous prospects in the European Union”.
In the end, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Koshulynskyi and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA to Ukraine John Tefft thanked each other for the meeting and expressed hope that the snow falling outside the window at the beginning of the meeting, will provide an opportunity to gather even greater harvest of relations between Ukraine and the USA, and the sun that shone through the window at the end of the meeting, will be the symbol of warm and friendly relations between the two countries.