“Parliament is one of the key institutional guarantees of democracy. Unfortunately, democracy in Ukraine is quite often viewed as an electoral democracy, when a party that has won elections has the right to do what it believes is necessary by ignoring and suppressing alternative and opposition,” said Hryhoriy Nemyrya delivering a speech during the session entitled “The role of the parliament in the process of Euro-integration and global reforms”.
According to him, today the Verkhovna Rada lacks political culture from the point of view if its rapprochement to European standards, particularly, search for compromises.
H.Nemyrya stressed that as of today, European integration is the priority that unites representatives of different political forces of the Parliament.
“We have adopted the Statement on European integration by the constitutional majority in February this year. It was a very symbolic step that has shown the potential of the Verkhovna Rada that managed find the priority uniting different political forces,” noted H.Nemyrya.
“I hope Ukraine will not loose its historic chance and the Association Agreement will be signed during the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius”.
Ex-ministers of foreign affairs of Ukraine, the people’s deputies Borys Tarasiuk and Petro Poroshenko, who also participated in the conference, “called Ukrainian authority to immediately fulfill the EU Council criteria (10/12/12) and open the way for signing the Agreement”.
Civil Network OPORA presented the mini-summary of work of the Verkhovna Rada for half a year, as well as an expert poll regarding efficiency and independency of the legislative branch of power.
According to Mission’s Regional Director Jed Barton, “research results aim at making the Parliament of Ukraine more efficient; aim at increasing impact of civil society on taking of decisions by the people’s deputies and bringing the work of the Parliament in line with democratic standards”.
Leading experts, politicians and diplomats participated in the conference.