On Friday, in his interview to the Rada TV channel and the Holos Ukrainy newspaper, Volodymyr Rybak expressed an idea that representatives of all political factions and, in case of necessity, experts on constitutional law should make up the composition of this commission. “The majority of the Verkhovna Rada is ready for consideration of all the proposals under the 13th section of the Constitution, which determines the procedure for the introduction of amendments to the Main Law,” he stressed.
According to him, this commission should work on the suggested bills on amendments to the Main Law and agree on the version that will further be brought for consideration by the Parliament.
Volodymyr Rybak informed on the outcome of the today’s meeting that involved parliamentary leadership, authorized faction representatives, heads of several specializing committees and the representative of the President of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, during which the issues on the agenda of the Parliament’s session for the next week and the bill on amendments to the Constitution were discussed. This was the third meeting this week, stressed the Chairman of the Parliament.
Thereat, he stressed that despite amendments to the Constitution are “an extremely important issue that is on the lips of the society and the people’s deputies in all regions,” as of today “there are no elaborations as based on which we could consider any new version of this law.” Neither are there the agreed upon documents, according to him.
The Chairman of the Parliament reminded that under his commission there was established the working group of authorized deputy faction representatives on elaboration of the adjusted bill on amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine during the previous week. The group now scrutinizes four bills on amendments to the Main Law.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada has also criticized the stand of the opposition factions, which, according to him, lies in “convening in the morning and having another Constitution, another form of government, and moving from the presidential-parliamentary republic to parliamentary-presidential in one day.” He believes that this process should be approached prudently, since it stipulates making amendments to more than 80 applicable laws.
Volodymyr Rybak thinks that the adjusted bill on amendments to the Main Law can be referred to the Venice Commission, after the respective opinion of which it could be voted for in the first reading and then referred to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
Chairman of the Parliament stressed that the Verkhovna Rada should perform its legislative function. In this context, he suggested consider social and economic issues, adoption of which is vital to the state, during the Conciliatory Council of faction leaders and committee chairpersons. “It is necessary that the Parliament performs its role of a legislative body and works, while faction leaders should continue consultations and their work on amendments to the Constitution,” he said, and added that he has addressed faction leaders with a request to adjust these issues during their meetings, so that the Verkhovna Rada could work on Tuesday.
Volodymyr Rybak expressed himself in favor of bringing the problems that arise in the course of parliamentary work, up for the session meetings. “We should consider them so that journalists and all people could hear it,” he stressed, and added “so, that the people’s deputies had the possibility to express their ideas and the Parliament could adopt laws that would work for people and for the state.”
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